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RecruitingNCT06605430CanPan-CUpdated Jul 29, 2025

Medical Cannabis in Patients With Advanced Pancreatic and Colorectal Cancer

A Phase 2 interventional study of Medical Cannabis in Pancreatic Cancer Non-resectable, Pancreatic Cancer Metastatic and Colorectal Cancer Metastatic, sponsored by HealthPartners Institute. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-07-29.

Sponsored by HealthPartners Institute · Phase 2, Interventional, and Supportive care

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Sep 2024; still recruiting 2 years later.
Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
64
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

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.

Read the 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.

02

Conditions studied

  • Pancreatic Cancer Non-resectable
  • Pancreatic Cancer Metastatic
  • Colorectal Cancer Metastatic

Keywords

  • medical cannabis
  • patient-reported outcomes
03

In context

Lead sponsor

HealthPartners Institute is the lead sponsor of 164 studies on the registry; 20 are open to participants now.

Of its 17 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 16 (94%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

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

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
05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Supportive care
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Crossover assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
64 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Early Cannabis

    Drug: Medical Cannabis

  • Experimental
    Delayed Cannabis

    Drug: Medical Cannabis

Interventions

  • DrugMedical 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.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Assess feasibility for conducting a larger randomized trial by determining rate of recruitment, compliance with randomization group, and protocol adherence to this clinical trial.

    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.

    Time frame: Early Cannabis - 8 weeks from cannabis initiation; Delayed Cannabis - 8 weeks from randomization

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • HealthPartners Cancer Research Center
    Saint Louis Park, Minnesota 55426, United States
    Recruiting
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jul 29, 2025, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06605430
Lead sponsor
HealthPartners Institute
Collaborators
University of Minnesota
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Sep 20, 2024
Start date
Sep 16, 2024
Primary completion
Sep 2026 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 2026 (estimated)
Last update
Jul 29, 2025

Study contacts

Alissa Gavenda, RN
Contact
cancercannabis@HealthPartners.com
(952) 977-5555

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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