Valenta S, Spichiger E, Paul SM, et al. - Via this prospective, longitudinal study of 175 oncology patients with unrelieved pain from eight outpatient cancer settings in the US, researchers sought to describe prevalence, characteristics, and management of constipation among these patients. Further, they examined interindividual differences in constipation severity over 10 weeks and sought for demographic, clinical, and symptom characteristics linked with higher constipation severity scores. Observations revealed the high prevalence of and a large amount of interindividual variability in constipation severity among these patients. Higher Constipation Assessment Scale scores were evident at enrollment in correlation to 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. The higher percentage of days with no bowel movement was correlated with interindividual variations in the trajectories of constipation.