Problems of opioid availability and accessibility across Europe: ESMO tackles the regulatory causes of intolerable and needless suffering

Abstract

The bare minimum that one can do for a patient with advanced and incurable cancer is to ensure that pain is adequately relieved. Sadly, many patients in Europe do not receive this minimum of treatment. Whereas some of the western European countries have regulations that make opioids widely available at minimal cost to patients in need, for a great many others availability and accessibility are severely hampered by either restrictive laws and regulations or, at times, by the lack of affordable formulations.