Symptom control in geriatric patients with terminal cancer: pain, nausea, and vomiting.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Few areas of medicine offer the physician such an opportunity for relieving suffering as in the care of the terminally ill. Usually, it is clear that the patient will die from the disease days or weeks before the event occurs. Treatments are available to significantly relieve symptoms and improve the quality of life in virtually all cancer patients. "The quality of mercy is essential to the practice of medicine; here, of all places, it should not be strained."