Continuing their work on cannabis for symptom control in patients with cancer, the Cancer Pain Subgroup has just published a MASCC Guideline on cannabis for cancer-related pain and risk of harms and adverse events.
Approximately 18% of patients with cancer use cannabis at one time as palliation or treatment for their cancer. This guideline, based on a systematic review of randomized cannabis cancer trials, was untaken to establish a guideline for its use in pain and summarize the risk of harm and adverse events when used for any indication in cancer patients.
However, high-quality systematic reviews with meta-analyses found little evidence that cannabinoids are an effective adjuvant or analgesic to cancer pain. Based on this, the MASCC panel recommends against the use of cannabinoids as an adjuvant analgesic for cancer pain and suggests that the potential risk of harm and adverse events be carefully considered for all cancer patients, particularly with treatment with a checkpoint inhibitor.
