Objective:To investigate the understanding of cancer pain by medical doctors and its therapeutic status in Shanghai. Methods:We recruited 1 982 medical physicians from 106 secondary and tertiary hospitals in Shanghai city from January to March in 2007. The understanding and the therapeutic status of cancer pain were investigated by conducting a questionnaire survey and the results were statistically analyzed.Rusults:There were 52.3% physicians who believed that they understand the treatment protocol of the Three-step Analgesic Ladder regimen. The rate increased by 21.6 percentage point compared with the results in 1999. The understanding degree of oncologists was significantly better than non-oncologists. There were 16.8% physicians giving the correct answers on the three main principles of the dosage titration in analgesic management. The correct rate of oncologists was significantly higher than that of non-oncologists. Opium with strong analgesic effect had become the first choice for severe cancer pain, and the use of pethidine (Dolantin) for severe cancer pain decreased significantly.The pain was significantly relieved in 74.8% patients. The pain-relieving rate increased by 25.4 percentage point compared with the results in 1999. There were 81.1% medical doctors confirming the effect of pain treatment and among them oncologists were more optimistic to therapeutic outcome than others. There were 93.3% physicians who agreed that it was necessary to carry out the standardized training of cancer pain treatment and the requirement of non-oncologists were much emergent. The over-strict controls by the hospitals and the regulations were the main obstacles for using analgesic drugs.Conclusion:The understanding of medical doctors and the diagnostic and therapeutic levels of cancer pain were improved significantly compared with those in 1999. But more training of cancer pain treatment are still required to publicize the standardized therapy and overcome the obstacles of using analgesic drug.