Has brought comfort to millions
By FRONTIERS
A new
research study finds that medicinal cannabis reduces cancer-related pain and
the need for opiate-based painkillers.
A
comprehensive assessment of the benefits of medical cannabis for cancer-related
pain found that for most oncology patients, pain measures improved
significantly, other cancer-related symptoms also decreased, the consumption of
painkillers was reduced, and the side effects were minimal. Published in Frontiers in Pain Research, these findings suggest that medicinal cannabis can be carefully
considered as an alternative to the pain relief medicines that are usually
prescribed to cancer patients.
Pain,
along with depression, anxiety, and insomnia, are some of the most fundamental
causes of oncology patients’ disability and suffering while undergoing
treatment therapies, and may even lead to worsened prognosis.
“Traditionally,
cancer-related pain is mainly treated by opioid analgesics, but most
oncologists perceive opioid treatment as hazardous, so alternative therapies
are required,” explained author David Meiri, assistant professor at the
Technion Israel Institute of Technology.
“Our
study is the first to assess the possible benefits of medical cannabis for
cancer-related pain in oncology patients; gathering information from the start
of treatment, and with repeated follow-ups for an extended period of time, to
get a thorough analysis of its effectiveness.”
Need for alternative treatment
After
talking to several cancer patients, who were looking for alternative options
for pain and symptom relief, the researchers were keen to thoroughly test the
potential benefits of medicinal cannabis.
“We
encountered numerous cancer patients who asked us whether medical cannabis
treatment can benefit their health,” said co-author Gil Bar-Sela, associate
professor at the Ha’Emek Medical Center Afula. “Our initial review of existing
research revealed that actually not much was known regarding its effectiveness,
particularly for the treatment of cancer-related pain, and of what was known,
most findings were inconclusive.”
The
researchers recruited certified oncologists who were able to issue medical
cannabis licenses to their cancer patients. These oncologists referred
interested patients to the study and reported on their disease characteristics.
“Patients
completed anonymous questionnaires before starting treatment, and again at
several time points during the following six months. We gathered data on a
number of factors, including pain measures, analgesics consumption, cancer
symptom burden, sexual problems, and side effects,” said Bar-Sela.
Improved
symptoms
An
analysis of the data revealed that many of the outcome measures improved, with
less pain and cancer symptoms. Importantly, the use of opioid and other pain
analgesics reduced. In fact, almost half of the patients studied stopped all
analgesic medications following six months of medicinal cannabis treatment.
“Medical
cannabis has been suggested as a possible remedy for appetite loss, however,
most patients in this study still lost weight. As a substantial portion were
diagnosed with progressive cancer, a weight decline is expected with disease
progression,” reported Meiri.
He
continued: “Interestingly, we found that sexual function improved for most men
but worsened for most women.”
Meiri
would like future studies to dig deeper and look at the effectiveness of
medicinal cannabis in different groups of cancer patients.
“Although
our study was very comprehensive and presented additional perspectives on
medical cannabis, the sex, age, and ethnicity, as well as cancer types and the
stage of the cancer meant the variety of patients in our study was
wide-ranging. Therefore, future studies should investigate the level of
effectiveness of medicinal cannabis in specific subgroups of cancer patients
with more shared characteristics.”
Reference:
20 May 2022, Frontiers in Pain Research.
DOI: 10.3389/fpain.2022.861037
