The discovery of a new biological pathway involved in pain processing offers hope of using existing cancer drugs to replace the use of opioids in chronic pain treatment, according to scientists at McGill University.

Because many therapeutic options, such as opioids, for patients with chronic pain carry the risk of addiction and undesirable side effects, this breakthrough offers promising lines of research into chronic pain treatment, says Luda Diatchenko, professor at McGill’s Faculty of Dentistry and co-lead author of the new study