Gabapentin for Neuropathic Cancer Pain and Its Potential Role in Modulating Cellular Apoptosis

Gabapentin for Neuropathic Cancer Pain and Its Potential Role in Modulating Cellular Apoptosis

Background: Cancer is a major health problem and one of them is metastasis. Metastatic cancer causes > 400,000 deaths annually, and these deaths are expected to be more than double by 2040. Cancer pain is a major problem associated with the clinical management of cancer. Some analgesic targets, such as ion channels and receptors, are also involved in the cancer process, so the use of some of these analgesics can have an impact on cancer metastasis. Gabapentin as an adjuvant analgesic is used as the fi rst line of treatment for neuropathic pain in cancer pain. The purpose of this study was to determine the potential role of gabapentin in modulating cellular apoptosis for protecting the progression and metastatic processes in cancer cell culture.
Methods: The research design used was an in vitro experimental randomized design. There were four groups in this study, namely three treatment groups and one control group with three repetitions per group. Gabapentin was given to each treatment group with graded doses of 1,000 ng/mL, 2,000 ng/mL, and 4,000 ng/mL, then the apoptotic index was tested. The mean apoptotic index was analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) test and followed by the least signifi cant differences level (α) of 5% (0.05). Results: The ANOVA test showed that there was a signifi cant difference in the percentage of the apoptotic index test in the four groups based on the fl ow cytometry method, with a P value < 0.05. Conclusion: The study concludes that giving gabapentin is effective in increasing the apoptotic index of cancer cell cultures.