New Clinical-Practice Guidelines for the Management of Pain in Patients with Cancer

Cancer is newly diagnosed in more than 1 million Americans annually, and 1 of 5 deaths in the United States -- about 1400 per day -- results from cancer1. Cancer is increasingly prevalent in the United States, yet unfortunately, the pain associated with it is frequently undertreated in both adults and children. Patients with cancer often have pain from more than one source, but in up to 90 percent of patients the pain can be controlled by relatively simple means. Nevertheless, undertreatment of cancer pain is common because of clinicians' inadequate knowledge of effective assessment and management practices, negative . . .