Medical Cannabis in Patients With Advanced Pancreatic and Colorectal Cancer (CanPan-C)

July 25, 2025 updated by: HealthPartners Institute

A Randomized Phase II Trial of Medical Cannabis to Reduce Symptom Burden in Patients With Advanced Pancreatic and Colorectal Cancer (CanPan-C)

Many patients with advanced pancreatic cancer and colorectal cancer experience burdensome and difficult-to-treat symptoms. The impact of multiple symptoms (called "symptom burden") can negatively affect a patient's quality of life, decrease their ability to tolerate cancer treatments, and lead to worse survival. Current approaches to manage these cancer-associated symptoms often work poorly, with most patients reporting a moderate to severe symptom burden. Therefore, there is an urgent need for treatments that improve these symptoms in patients with advanced pancreatic and colorectal cancer, and data suggests that medical cannabis can help. In this research study, we are examining the usefulness of using medical cannabis in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer and colorectal cancer to further study how cannabis can impact their symptom burden.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Participants will be randomized 1:1 to receive "early'' or "delayed'' medical cannabis. The early group will have access to medical cannabis immediately at no charge, while the delayed group will agree not to use cannabis of any type during the first 8 weeks. The primary study period for assessing the primary aim is 0 - 8 weeks. Participants in the early arm will have an option to receive cannabis at no charge for another 8 weeks (total 16 weeks), but will be responsible for the cost of the cannabis in this second 8 week period. Participants in the delayed arm will use cannabis from weeks 8 to 16. This secondary study period (8-16 weeks) will be used to assess the proportion of participants in the early arm who choose to continue cannabis, persistence of symptom relief with cannabis, and ongoing safety signals. Patients in the delayed group will complete patient-reported outcomes using NCI PRO-CTCAE (PRO) (weekly) and PROMIS Global (QOL) (every 4 weeks) through 16 weeks. Patients in the early group will complete PRO (weekly) and QOL (every 4 weeks) through week 8, then PRO/QOL every 4 weeks until week 16. All patients will complete a close out survey at the end of their cannabis administration period.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

64

Phase

  • Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria

  1. Adults (aged 18 or more at enrollment)
  2. Histologically or cytologically proven pancreatic or colorectal cancer. Histologies may include listing of adenocarcinoma, poorly differentiated carcinoma, or other pathology terms that treating oncologist would consider managing per usual standard of care of pancreas and colorectal adenocarcinoma. Neuroendocrine tumors are excluded in both cancer types.
  3. Advanced stage (locally advanced or metastatic) pancreatic or colorectal cancer with no definitive plans for curative surgery in the next 3 months
  4. Self-report of experiencing nausea, vomiting, anorexia, cachexia (wasting), or pain at least once in the 14 days prior to randomization
  5. Plan to initiate or initiated within the past 2 weeks standard-of-care systemic chemotherapy (any regimen that does not include immunotherapy) at a participating institution with no prior systemic therapy in the prior 3 months (prior adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy is allowed as long as it was >3 months prior to randomization)
  6. Must be a resident of Minnesota
  7. Must be willing to be registered in the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Program and follow all rules and requirements of the state program
  8. Must be willing to report baseline and required patient-reported outcomes

Exclusion Criteria

  1. Self-reported regular use (using 10 or more days in the 30 days prior to randomization) of a THC containing cannabinoid product
  2. Patients with a history of intolerance or hypersensitivity to cannabis (i.e., cannabis hyperemesis)
  3. Patients with Alzheimer's dementia, active epilepsy, or history of traumatic brain injury
  4. Patients with known active or untreated brain metastases. A brain MRI is not required during the screening period.
  5. Patients initiating or receiving immunotherapy, a chemotherapy-immunotherapy combination, or non-standard cytotoxic chemotherapy (including patients enrolled/ enrolling in trials of investigational cancer-directed treatments)
  6. Women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or of childbearing potential without the use of birth control
  7. Uncontrolled acute or chronic medical conditions, psychiatric conditions or laboratory abnormality that may increase the risk associated with study participation or investigational product administration or may interfere with the interpretation of study results and, in the judgment of the investigator, would make the subject inappropriate for enrollment in this study
  8. Has any condition that in the opinion of the investigator might jeopardize the safety of the subject or interfere with protocol compliance

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Early Cannabis
Drug: Medical Cannabis
The Early Cannabis group will be provided with 8 weeks of medical cannabis at no charge. Following 8 weeks of cannabis, the Early Cannabis group will be observed as per standard of care for the remaining 8 weeks. The Delayed Cannabis group will receive usual care for the first 8 weeks, and then be provided up to 8 weeks of medical cannabis at no charge for the second 8 weeks. Prior to receiving cannabis, patients must first be certified by a provider for eligibility to receive medical cannabis before registering with the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Program. Collective experience with precise dosage CBMs supports a pharmacist-guided titration protocol with robust patient input and close patient follow up. The treating pharmacist in the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Program thoroughly instructs patients on dose titration at the initial visit.
Experimental: Delayed Cannabis
Drug: Medical Cannabis
The Early Cannabis group will be provided with 8 weeks of medical cannabis at no charge. Following 8 weeks of cannabis, the Early Cannabis group will be observed as per standard of care for the remaining 8 weeks. The Delayed Cannabis group will receive usual care for the first 8 weeks, and then be provided up to 8 weeks of medical cannabis at no charge for the second 8 weeks. Prior to receiving cannabis, patients must first be certified by a provider for eligibility to receive medical cannabis before registering with the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Program. Collective experience with precise dosage CBMs supports a pharmacist-guided titration protocol with robust patient input and close patient follow up. The treating pharmacist in the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Program thoroughly instructs patients on dose titration at the initial visit.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Assess feasibility for conducting a larger randomized trial by determining rate of recruitment, compliance with randomization group, and protocol adherence to this clinical trial.
Time Frame: Early Cannabis - 8 weeks from cannabis initiation; Delayed Cannabis - 8 weeks from randomization
Achieve successful completion of feasibility trial by demonstrating the following: a) 64 patients enrolled (enrollment goal in each cohort is to enroll 32 patients within an 18 month period), b) at least 60% of eligible patients who are offered participation enroll in the trial, c) at least 20% of patient screened for eligibility enroll in the trial, d) at least 60% of patients comply with randomization group through week 8, and e) patients in both early and delayed group complete at least 50% of weekly PROs through week 8.
Early Cannabis - 8 weeks from cannabis initiation; Delayed Cannabis - 8 weeks from randomization

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

HealthPartners Institute

Collaborators

University of Minnesota

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

September 16, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

September 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 18, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 18, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

September 20, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 29, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 25, 2025

Last Verified

July 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • A24-183

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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