Valenta S, Spichiger E, Paul SM, et al. - Researchers conducted a prospective, longitudinal study of 175 oncology patients with unrelieved pain from eight outpatient cancer settings in the U.S. in order to delineate the prevalence, characteristics, and management of constipation among these patients. Further, they appraised interindividual variances in constipation severity over 10 weeks and sought for demographic, clinical, and symptom characteristics associated with higher constipation severity scores. Among participants, 70.1% reported constipation at enrollment [ie, Constipation Assessment Scale (CAS) score of > 2; mean CAS score: 3.72 (±3.11)]. Over the first week of the study, while patients reported the use of one to two constipation treatments per day, there was a large amount of interindividual variability in CAS scores. At enrollment, higher CAS scores were noted in correlation with a higher percentage of days with no bowel movement, a higher number of constipation treatments, higher state anxiety scores, and higher analgesic side effects scores. Interindividual differences in the trajectories of constipation were evident in correlation with a higher percentage of days with no bowel movement. Considering the characteristics associated with worse CAS scores, clinicians could recognize high-risk patients and induct prompt interventions.