Comment: For years patients with malignancies were under-treated insofar as pain was concerned. The reasons for this were legion but included reticence on the part of the physician to prescribe narcotics for fear of peer disapproval, the fear of “addiction” on the part of the patient, and the fact that prescribing large doses of narcotics placed the physician in the “caretaker” rather than the “active therapist” role. This later implied physicians had “given up” on any cure, something that is difficult to accept. Another real problem is the inability of medicine to quantify pain; unfortunately it cannot be objectively measured. This article implies in the discussion section that trained oncologists may manage cancer pain more adequately than those less well trained. Overall, however, this dismal picture is beginning to change. Patients should be given sufficient medication to reduce their pain. Cancer patients have nothing to lose except confidence in their doctors.