How well is cancer pain treated?

There are currently two indicators, Morphine Consumption Data and the Pain Management Index, that have been widely used to assess the efficacy of cancer pain treatment. Both are based on the World Health Organization guidelines for cancer pain and both have limitations in their ability to assess the quality of pain care for cancer patients. The published studies that have used these methods all report that cancer pain is generally undertreated in a wide range of clinical settings and care models.