Aim: To assess the prevalence, intensity and adequacy of cancer pain management in adult cancer patients admitted to palliative and oncology units.                                                             

Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study included 323 adult cancer patients including all accessible and eligible inpatients who were seen and managed under the oncology department and interviewed in a randomly selected week excluding weekends of each month for 6 consecutive months. The adequacy of pain management assessed using PMI.                                    

Results: This study showed that 66.8% of patients had pain; 71% of them had moderate to severe pain; however, the pain was adequately treated in 90% of patients based on PMI ≥ zero. The satisfaction survey showed that 84.5% of patients were satisfied about pain management and 15.5% were not satisfied. 89% of patients treated by analgesics  and 85% of them treated by opioids and there was no correlation between demographic factors and level of  adequacy of pain control.                                                                                                                             

Conclusion: Moderate to severe cancer pain is common and affects patients at different disease stages; however, optimal and effective pain management is affected by many obstacles that could be patient and family related or care provider related. This study showed that 90% of the patients included were adequately treated and 84% of them were satisfied.