This was due to many constraints that were largely self imposed by the medical community and regulatory agencies. The focus now is to render the patient pain free. New agents have been developed to augment this goal. It now has an FDA-approved indication for the palliative treatment of metastatic breast cancer. It stimulates the reformation of bone and thereby hampers any metastatic lesions from breast cancer.
Radiation oncologists can play a tremendous role in palliation and reduction of bony pain.
Finally and most simply, morphine and its narcotic analogs are available in multiple forms and duration of action to assist the clinician in making the patient pain free. The advent of new anti-emetic agents, colony stimulating factors and biologic response modifiers as well as new targeting and delivery vehicles will hopefully make this disease less of a specter and more of a treatable event. No matter how effective treatment modalities become, early detection has continued to prove the single best prognostic factor, all other factors remaining equal. Therefore, the early detection of cancer becomes the hallmark of a successful treatment plan. This above all else will allow for earlier detection, when treatment interventions have the highest cure rates regardless of the avenue of treatment chosen.