• Myung Soo Hyun, Jae Lyun Lee, Kyung Hee Lee, Sei One Shin, Ki Young Kwon, Hong Suk Song, Ok Bae Kim, Sang Kyun Sohn, Kyu Bo Lee, Hun Mo Rhu, Gun Wook Park, Dong Gun Shin, and Jeong Lim Lee.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, 317-1 Dae-Myeong-Dong, Nam-Gu, Daegu 705-710, South Korea.
• Oncology. 2003 Jan 1;64(3):237-44.

AbstractSubstantial pain is experienced by a lot of patients with cancer, and undertreated pain significantly undermines their quality of life. Despite international and national guidelines on cancer pain management, the practical effectiveness of management is still problematic. We did a prospective cross-sectional survey on pain prevalence, pain intensity, its impact on daily activity, and adequacy of pain management in 823 patients treated by medical oncologists and radiologic oncologists. At the time of the survey, 29.7% of the patients had pain that was moderate or severe. Performance status and tumor extent were significant predictors of pain presence and its intensity. Pain severity and the proportion of the patients whose function is impaired are highly associated. Among the patients with pain, only 37% rated pain relief as satisfactory. Forty-one percent of the patients with pain received inadequate pain management. Physicians did not adjust the analgesic prescription in about 53% of the patients who reported severe pain. These results demonstrate the alarming degree of undertreatment of pain in patients with cancer in Korea, and indicate the need to improve the management of cancer-related pain. Future research should elucidate the factors that impede adequate pain management in order to overcome obstacles to adequate treatment.Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel

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