TY - JOUR T1 - Letter to the Editor re ‘Characteristics of breakthrough cancer pain and its influence on quality of life in an international cohort of patients with cancer (<em>BMJ Support Palliat Care</em> 2016;6:344–52)’ JF - BMJ Supportive &amp; Palliative Care JO - BMJ Support Palliat Care SP - 264 LP - 264 DO - 10.1136/bmjspcare-2016-001249 VL - 7 IS - 3 AU - Andrew Davies AU - Andrew Dickman AU - Paul Farquhar-Smith AU - Katherine Webber AU - John Zeppetella Y1 - 2017/09/01 UR - http://spcare.bmj.com/content/7/3/264.abstract N2 - Hjermstad et al1 report an association between ‘high’ background pain intensity and breakthrough cancer pain. However, we would suggest that their results demonstrate that patients with uncontrolled background have more flares of pain than patients with well-controlled background pain. Thus, we would question the criteria used to identify patients with breakthrough cancer pain in their study.We acknowledge the lack of consensus regarding the definition of breakthrough cancer pain, although this group has previously stated that … ER -