Exposure to cannabidiol (CBD) or cannabigerol (CBG) after neurotoxic chemotherapy was associated with a substantially lower likelihood of subsequently being diagnosed with neuropathy, according to a new real-world study.
The study, accepted September 9 by Frontiers in Pain Research, was conducted by researchers from the Penn State College of Medicine. Researchers examined whether documented CBD or CBG exposure was associated with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, a common complication of certain cancer treatments for which effective prevention and treatment options remain limited.
Using de-identified electronic health records from the TriNetX Research Network, researchers analyzed adults who received neurotoxic chemotherapy and had no neuropathy-related diagnosis before or at the time treatment began.
For the primary post-chemotherapy analysis, 83 patients with documented CBD or CBG exposure were compared with 118,001 patients who received gabapentin, pregabalin or duloxetine after chemotherapy.
After adjustment, CBD/CBG exposure was associated with an approximately 84% lower hazard of receiving a subsequent neuropathy-related diagnosis between 30 and 365 days after treatment. The association was statistically significant, with a hazard ratio of 0.162.
Researchers conducted a separate analysis involving patients who had documented CBD or CBG exposure during the year before chemotherapy. That analysis included 162 cannabinoid-exposed patients and 633,329 controls.
Unlike exposure after chemotherapy, CBD or CBG exposure before treatment was not significantly associated with a reduced likelihood of later neuropathy, suggesting the timing of cannabinoid use could be important.
The authors note that cannabinoids other than delta-9 THC have shown pain-relieving effects in preclinical models of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, but evidence regarding their effectiveness in real-world patients has remained limited.
The study, titled “Cannabidiol/cannabigerol exposure and neuropathy-related outcomes after neurotoxic chemotherapy: a real-world cohort study,” was authored by researchers from the Penn State College of Medicine.
