title: Are cannabinoids effective for treatment of pain in patients with active cancer?
abstract: Cannabinoids have been proposed for the treatment of patients with cancer pain, especially if standard treatment does not control symptoms. Using Epistemonikos database, which is maintained by searching 30 databases, we identified nine systematic reviews including seven trials that answer the question of interest, of which six are randomized trials. We performed a meta-analysis and generated a summary of findings table using the GRADE approach. We concluded it is unclear whether cannabinoids decrease pain and improve quality of life in patients with refractory cancer pain because the certainty of the evidence is very low, and it probably increases adverse effects substantially.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile; Proyecto Epistemonikos, Santiago, Chile. Address: Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Lira 63, Santiago Centro, Chile. Email: jepena@uc.cl.
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lobos Urbina
authors.affiliation: Proyecto Epistemonikos, Santiago, Chile; Departamento Hemato-Oncología, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile; Centro de Cáncer Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza, Red de Salud UC-Christus, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peña Durán
mesh_terms: D000700:Analgesics / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000072716:Cancer Pain / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002186:Cannabinoids / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology; D010148:Intractable Pain / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology; D011788:Quality of Life; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
chemical_list: D000700:Analgesics; D002186:Cannabinoids