A study of medicinal cannabis for cancer patients has shown promising results, researchers report today.
Medical cannabinoids have previously been shown to offer the potential for pain relief in patients with cancer.
So Dr Antonio Vigano of McGill University Health Centre, Quebec, Canada, and colleagues took another look at the safety and effectiveness of medical cannabis for cancer pain and medication use.
In today’s BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care they write: “Approximately 38% of all patients with cancer experience moderate to severe pain. More specifically, 55% of patients undergoing anticancer treatment and 66% of patients with advanced, metastatic or terminal disease experience pain.”
Their study analysed figures from 358 cancer patients in the Quebec Cannabis Registry. Only two of fifteen adverse events were serious, and these were unlikely to have been caused by cannabis.
Pain scores dropped significantly when measured at three, six, and nine months. This covered ‘worst pain’ scores, average pain, overall pain severity and pain interference in normal life.
The best pain control was seen for patients taking products with an equal balance of Tetrahydrocannabinol and Cannabidiol.
“Decreases in total medication burden were observed at all follow-ups,” the authors report, adding that: “Decreases in morphine equivalent daily dose were observed at the first three followups.”
In conclusion, they write: “Real-world data from this large, prospective, multicentre registry indicate that medicinal cannabis is a safe and effective complementary treatment for pain relief in patients with cancer.”
However, they point out that “the particularly good safety profile of medicinal cannabis found in this study can be partly attributed to the close supervision by health care professionals”, and add that the findings should be confirmed through randomised placebo-controlled trials.
Aprikian, S. et al. Medical cannabis is effective for cancer-related pain: Quebec Cannabis Registry results. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care 3 May 2023; doi: 10.1136/spcare-2022-004003
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