Medical cannabis use and its effects in people with breast cancer during and after treatment
Assessing Benefits and Harms of Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoid Use in Breast Cancer Patients During and After Treatments
This project follows breast cancer patients who do and do not use medical cannabis to learn how cannabis use relates to symptoms, side effects, and treatment outcomes.
Quick facts
| Grant type | U01 cooperative agreement |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Miami School of Medicine NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Coral Gables, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11173647 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
If you have breast cancer and are receiving or recently finished treatment, this study will follow you over time to track whether you use medical cannabis, what products and doses you use, and how you feel. The team plans to enroll 600 people (about 300 who use cannabis and 300 who do not) and will collect medical information, patient-reported symptoms, clinician reports, and blood samples for biological markers. Researchers will look at inflammatory pathways that might explain symptom relief or harms and will record any adverse reactions or possible interactions with cancer therapies. The study combines questionnaires, clinical data from your care team, and lab tests to build a clearer picture of benefits and risks.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: People with a diagnosis of breast cancer who are currently undergoing treatment or are in the period after treatment, including both medical cannabis users and non-users, would be ideal candidates.
Not a fit: People without breast cancer, those unwilling to share cannabis use details or provide follow-up data or blood samples, or those seeking experimental cannabis treatments would not likely benefit from participating.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the work could help patients and doctors understand whether medical cannabis eases treatment-related symptoms and whether it affects treatment safety or cancer outcomes.
How similar studies have performed: Surveys and small studies suggest cannabis can relieve some cancer-related symptoms, but robust data on cancer outcomes and treatment interactions are limited, so this larger prospective cohort is relatively novel.
Where this research is happening
Coral Gables, United States
- University of Miami School of Medicine — Coral Gables, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Hu, Jennifer J — University of Miami School of Medicine
- Study coordinator: Hu, Jennifer J
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.