Barriers in cancer pain management.

Inadequate pain management of cancer patients remains a striking problem despite impressive scientific progress in the knowledge of the pathophysiology, pathogenesis and therapy of pain. Our paper focuses on three topics: 1. physician-related barriers, 2. patient-related barriers, and 3. society- and tradition-related barriers as well as government regulations. It is imperative to overcome these barriers, especially since legal regulations for pain management were embodied into statutory regulations in Austria two years ago.