An Integrative Medicine Approach to the Utilization of Cannabis and Cannabinoids for Palliation in Advanced Cancer Patients: Canadian/US Perspectives and Practical Recommendations (SA527)

Abstract

•Describe current and future examples of research on medical cannabis for palliation in advanced cancer patients.•Understand the various challenges to providing access and monitoring to medical cannabis in community-based, tertiary care and long-term care residences.•Review key practical recommendations on the integration of cannabinoids for symptom management in palliative care patients. Integration of cannabinoids into palliative care has been delayed by many obstacles, such as paucity of clinical research data, poor clinical knowledge on how to initiate and monitor cannabinoid treatments and conflicting or unsupportive regulatory frameworks. Cancer patients, on the other hand, are known to have high rates of cannabis use and desire but are not receiving information about cannabis from oncology providers. This session proposes to illustrate the different clinical settings where the use of the traditional plant botanical cannabis and its derivatives could be considered, as well as provide an overview regarding their appropriate use from an integrative medicine perspective --cannabinoid integrative medicine. The discussion will primarily be focused on the palliative care needs of patients with advanced cancer. The group of authors include both US and Canadian-based clinician-scientist/scholars who have developed a practical approach for the integration of cannabis into oncologic palliative care, including guidance on choice of chemovars (strains), titration and monitoring as well as development of clinical pearls based on their clinical experience and the published literature. Areas covered include symptom management, palliation of existential distress, and experimental use of cannabinoids in disease modification.