Morphine: immediate release vs. controlled release

One must ever focus, in the oncology patient, on the possible treatable etiologies of pain which might be amenable to radiotherapy, chemotherapy or surgery. The first goal is to accurately diagnose the source of the pain and then, only if other active intervention is unhelpful, administer analgesic therapy. The use of controlled-release morphine administered at regular 12-hour intervals offers an additional method of providing prolonged comfort with the associated overall improvement in quality of life of the cancer patient.