Abstract
Background
Cancer is a major public health problem as the leading cause of death. Palliative
treatment aimed to alleviate pain and nausea in patients with advanced disease is
a cornerstone of oncology. In 2007, the Israeli Ministry of Health began providing
approvals for medical cannabis for the palliation of cancer symptoms. The aim of this
study is to characterize the epidemiology of cancer patients receiving medical cannabis
treatment and describe the safety and efficacy of this therapy.
Methods
We analyzed the data routinely collected as part of the treatment program of 2970
cancer patients treated with medical cannabis between 2015 and 2017.
Results
The average age was 59.5 ± 16.3 years, 54.6% women and 26.7% of the patients reported
previous experience with cannabis. The most frequent types of cancer were: breast
(20.7%), lung (13.6%), pancreatic (8.1%) and colorectal (7.9%) with 51.2% being at
stage 4. The main symptoms requiring therapy were: sleep problems (78.4%), pain (77.7%,
median intensity 8/10), weakness (72.7%), nausea (64.6%) and lack of appetite (48.9%).
After six months of follow up, 902 patients (24.9%) died and 682 (18.8%) stopped the
treatment. Of the remaining, 1211 (60.6%) responded; 95.9% reported an improvement
in their condition, 45 patients (3.7%) reported no change and four patients (0.3%)
reported deterioration in their medical condition.
Conclusions
Cannabis as a palliative treatment for cancer patients seems to be well tolerated,
effective and safe option to help patients cope with the malignancy related symptoms.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
January 19,
2018
Received in revised form:
January 17,
2018
Received:
December 28,
2017
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
