Cannabis for symptom management in children with cancer: a demonstration project by the Canadian Childhood Cannabinoid Clinical Trials (C4T) platform

Unregulated cannabis products are currently being used by children with cancer for a variety of reasons including pain, sleep, nausea and as a cancer treatment. In Canada, no cannabis product has received Health Canada licensing approval for use in children. Without research evidence many doctors are hesitant to recommend cannabis products for children with cancer. Parents desperate for effective treatments and armed with anecdotal information from case reports and social media are obtaining cannabis products (e.g. online or storefront clinics). In order for doctors to feel confident in advising parents on the use and dose of cannabis they need better information on whether these products work and if they are safe. To address this goal, we established a national team of researchers, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, policy makers, youth and parents, called C4T. Our goal is to better understand the risks and potential benefits of medical cannabis use in children with cancer. Our diverse study team will determine how parents and youth are currently using cannabis products in cancer and what the reason for use is. C4T will review the literature and conduct a real-world study with children with cancer who are already using cannabis to try and establish a dose-response. C4T will use this information to create educational tools for doctors, youth and parents as well as to develop large scale studies to test the benefits and safety of medical cannabis products for children compared with existing treatments/standard of care. There is a large knowledge gap on if and when cannabis products can be used safely by children with cancer and other chronic health conditions. To ensure people can use our findings, we will create and update an online resource hut that is accessible to the public. Our research team is well equipped to fill this knowledge gap and continue to conduct high-quality research on cannabis for a variety of health conditions in children.