Tateo, S. (2017). State of the evidence: Cannabinoids and cancer pain--A systematic review. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 29, 94–103.
STUDY PURPOSE: Determine the current state of the science regarding use of cannabinoids for cancer pain
TYPE OF STUDY: Systematic review
DATABASES USED: CINAHL, BIOSIS, PUBMED, Cochrane collaboration
INCLUSION CRITERIA: RCT examining effects of cannabis or cannabinoids on cancer pain
EXCLUSION CRITERIA: Non-cancer pain, non-RCTs
TOTAL REFERENCES RETRIEVED: 81
EVALUATION METHOD AND COMMENTS ON LITERATURE USED: Jadad scale used to evaluate study quality. Six studies used a crossover design and two were parallel group design. All were deemed to be of low to moderate quality
FINAL NUMBER STUDIES INCLUDED: 8
TOTAL PATIENTS INCLUDED IN REVIEW: 683
SAMPLE RANGE ACROSS STUDIES: 10 to 360
KEY SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS: All patients had moderate to severe pain
PHASE OF CARE: Not specified or not applicable
APPLICATIONS: Palliative care
Studies examined oral THC, nabiximols, oral synthetic analog of THC, and oral benzypranoperidine. The majority of studies showed analgesic effects when compared to placebo and strongest evidence was seen for nabiximols.
Cannabinoids appear to be useful adjuncts for cancer pain not completely relieved by opioids, but there is a lack of high-quality evidence.
Cannabinoids may be useful adjuncts to analgesics for cancer-related pain management. However, the evidence reviewed here was mainly of low to moderate quality. Further well-designed research is warranted.