The survey's "most surprising" finding, Glode told Medscape Medical News, was about how oncology providers receive information about medical marijuana. Most commonly, it's from patients (68.4%).
Traditional sources of information for healthcare professionals lagged behind, per the survey: other providers (53.2%), medical journals (51.5%), and lectures (43.9%). "They're teaching us," Glode said about cancer patients and marijuana.
We aren't the ones studying marijuana. Dr Ashley Glode
That's role reversal, she suggested. "We aren't the ones studying marijuana. We aren't the experts. They are."
In effect, it is individualized medicine, said Glode: "Patients are trying different things and figuring out what works."
For example, cancer patients inform clinicians of their marijuana product choices and about how they felt before and after they took it with regard to disease- and treatment-related symptoms. "They bring in the wrappers of old edibles to help you," she said, referring food-based marijuana products such as brownies. Patients also recommend certain dispensaries on the basis of experience; medical marijuana patients fill their prescriptions at dispensaries, not pharmacies, because under federal law, marijuana is classified as a schedule I drug.
