Joseph Lazaroff's cancer had spread throughout his body. Eight months earlier, he had seen his doctor about a backache. A scan revealed tumours in Lazaroff's liver, bowel, and up and down his spine. A biopsy showed an untreatable cancer. Lazaroff went on around-the-clock morphine to control his pain. his legs had become weak and he became incontinent. A scan showed a metastasis compressing his thoracic spinal cord. Radiation had no effect.