Governments around the world are leaving hundreds of millions of cancer patients to suffer needlessly because of their failure to ensure adequate access to pain-relieving drugs, a new international survey reveals. The new data, released during the recent European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2012 in Vienna, paints a shocking picture of unnecessary pain on a global scale, said Prof Nathan Cherny, lead author of the report from Shaare Zedek Medical Centre in Israel, and chair of the ESMO Palliative Care Working Group.