Nelson DB, Cata JP, Niu J, et al. - Researchers examined how persistent opioid use influence survival among patients who received a lobectomy for stage I NSCLC. From the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results-Medicare database, 2,884 patients were examined. Persistent opioid use 3 to 6 months after surgery was observed in 27.0%. After matching, there was an association between persistent opioid use and worse overall survival and cancer-specific survival. Overall survival for those who used the lowest quartile of opioids, which was often manifested as a single opioid prescription, was comparable to those who reported no opioid use. However, there was a correlation of the second and third quartiles of opioid use with decreased overall survival (HR 1.53 and HR 1.39 respectively) that was nonetheless less severe than the highest quartile of opioid use (HR 2.50). Worse overall survival was also observed in correlation with age, sex, marital status, comorbidity, tumor size, tumor grade, and radiation, whereas improved overall survival was observed with chemotherapy use and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery.