Assessing the Nutritional Impact of Cannabinoids in Patients with Advanced Cancer

Aim: Patients with Advanced Cancer suffer with poor quality of life, nutritional issues and they suffer with various symptom burden. Cannabinoids are implicated in relieving various symptoms and pain in cancer patients. There are also reports that starting Cannabinoids could improve their Nutritional status in these patients with advanced cancer.

Methodology: Forty advanced cancer patients are assessed at Basavatarakam Hospital (BIACH&RI), and nutritional status were measured through structured tools like Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA), Nutritional risk screening tool (NRS). Data was collected through telephonic interviews/ patient reviews. Patients were given CannaBliss in a thick paste or oil-like substance, was administered through transmucosal application or by applying it on the gums above the teeth using fingers. Patients were assessed at two time points for their Nutritional status, (T1=At the time of Recruitment, T2=At three weeks) Confounding variables, such as age, sex, were controlled by setting strict inclusion criteria and collecting detailed baseline data, which allowed for statistical adjustments. To test the hypothesis, paired t-tests, Chi- square tests were likely applied, comparing nutritional status between the two time points (T1 and T2) to determine the impact of the cannabinoids.

Results: Patients who were treated with Cannabis showed Moderate improvement in the PG-SGA and stable in NRS Scores, there was some amount of difference which was not statistically significant.

Conclusion: The study highlights due to the complex nature of nutritional status in patients with advanced cancer, evaluation by NRS Score may not be alone sufficient and for comprehensive assessment PG-SGA Scale may be better scale, because even though patients are having severe feeding related issues they are still in low risk with NRS Score. The NRS Tool, which assesses nutritional status and illness severity, may not be ideal for short-term studies like this three-week follow-up. It may not fully capture the nutritional challenges of advanced-stage cancer patients who are unable to eat, indicating the need for a more detailed tool like PG-SGA scale.