EXPERIENCE IN THE USE OF CANNABIS ON PATIENTS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF PALLIATIVE CARE OF THE ANGEL ROFFO HOSPITAL FOR ONCOLOGIC CARE.

ANDRINOLO DARÍO; SAURÍ ALVARO; VACCARINI CRISTIAN; SEDAN DANIELA

Berlín

Congreso; IACM 10th Conference on Cannabinoids in Medicine; 2019

IACM

Thanks to therapeutic users and civil organizations, in March of 2017, in Argentina, it was possible to pass Law 27,350 for the medicinal use of cannabis, which allows for research into medicinal cannabis and regulates the access to medicinal cannabis. However, as of date, only a handful of patients managed to access the medicinal cannabis. This situation forces mother and patient organizations to grow and process cannabis plants, in order to improve the health and life quality of kids, patients and their families. The risks this kind of practices entail are many, and we can frequently see police raids and the seizure of the plants in the growers? homes, and the growers are often prosecuted and even sentenced to 4 to 15 years in prison. Such situation has allowed for the growth of an illegal market of cannabis oil with no control whatsoever. However, it is getting more and more frequent to see patients that choose to use medicinal cannabis and ask their doctors to assist them in the process. This is mostly seen in oncologic patients who receive palliative care and who are treated at the Department of Palliative Care of the Hospital Angel Roffo for Oncologic Care (University of Buenos Aires). They use homemade oils or they buy them in the black market; we don?t have any information on the cannabinoids that are present in these oils and in which proportion. We want to stress that it is mandatory to know the concentration of the cannabinoids found in the different presentations used for medicinal purposes in order to be certain of the dosage.The aim of this work is to study the cannabinoids that are present in the oils used by the patients who are treated at the Unit of Palliative Care of the Hospital Angel Roffo and to check on the evolution of the patients.Methods: Cannabis oil samples were extracted with ethanol and, after a clean-up process, the cannabinoid profile was analyzed by HPLC-UV/DAD using analytical standards to identify and quantify (Cerilliant). During 2017 and 2018, 150 patients received treatment. 64 of said patients had medical charts at the Roffo Institute (IOAR) (43%) and 86 of them are patients who looked for a second opinion, and who have not had a follow-up at the hospital. Out of the 64 patient at the Institute, 33 of them have an observational record with posterior follow-ups. From these patients, we could collect data regarding the reasons why they started using these oils, adverse effects, influence in their workplace and social life, and subjective improvement of pain and relationship to the use of opioids.Results: The first results indicate that, over 159 samples of cannabis oil, with an average of 7.04 mg/ml and a standard deviation of 17.4 mg/ml, 21% of the patients show a 25% to 60% decrease of the DEMO, with the use of cannabis derivates, while the 60% said that they felt an improvement in their social life and in their family environment.Conclusions: It is necessary to enforce Law 27350 of medicinal cannabis so that everyone can have access to good quality cannabis, subject to proper controls.Acknowledgments: This work would not have been possible without the participation of the doctors of the Roffo Hospital, Romina Montiel, Marina Elychiri, Marcelo Iwan, Marcela Loza, Cecilia Rinkewich and Betriz Soto as well as the members of the National University of La Plata Cannabis and Health.