• Matthew Chung, Hee Kee Kim, and Salahadin Abdi.
• Department of Pain Medicine, Division of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and, Pain Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
• Curr Opin Anaesthesiol. 2020 Dec 1; 33 (6): 825-831.

Purpose Of ReviewThe prevalence of cancer pain will continue to rise as pain is common among the survivorship and general cancer population. As interest in cannabis and cannabinoids for medicinal use including pain management continues to rise, there is growing need to update and review the current state of evidence for their use. The literature was searched for articles in English with key words cannabis, cannabinoids, and cancer pain. The sources of articles were PubMed, Embase, and open Google search.Recent FindingsIn a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial including a 3-week treatment period of nabiximol for advanced cancer patients with pain refractory to optimized opiate therapy, improvements in average pain were seen in the intention to treat population (P = 0.0854) and per- protocol population (P = 0.0378).SummaryTo date, preclinical data has demonstrated evidence to suggest promising potential for cancer pain and the urgent need to translate this into clinical practice. Unfortunately, due to limited data, for adults with advanced cancer being treated with opiate therapy, the addition of cannabis or cannabinoids is not currently supported to address cancer pain effectively.

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