This retropective study examined the degree of pain control as related to the four patient variables: age, living arrangemets, primary cancer site, and compliance with the analgesic regimen. Terminally ill cancer patients were studied (n=96) Of the variables studied, only primary cancer sitte was found to be significantly related to both compliance and pain control achieved as anticipated, the level of analgesics prescribed was significantly related to the degree of pain being exprienced. However, Only 44.8% of the patients studied were compliant with their pain medication regiments. These finding support the need for individualized approaches to pain management among home care patients