Abstract Background: Cancer survivors increasingly use cannabis products to manage treatment-related symptoms. Yet, little is known about their perceptions of the helpfulness of cannabis products for symptom relief or what barriers shape their use. We aimed to characterize cannabis product use and perceptions among cancer patients. Methods: We administered a cross-sectional survey to 650 adult patients at UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center clinics who had received treatment within the last 3 months, with a response rate of 54% (54 patients died, 320 responded). Patients who reported using cannabis products after being diagnosed with cancer (n=92) were eligible for this analysis. The survey captured demographics, perceived symptom change with cannabis product use, and barriers to use. Descriptive analyses and Kendall-Wei Rank were completed using STATA and R. Results: Patients who responded had a median age of 62 (IQR: 53-67) years; 51% were women, 89% were White, 34% had an annual income of 100, 000 or more, 50% had completed college or technical school, and 35% used tobacco in the past year. Half the patients had metastatic cancer (48%). Most patients received chemotherapy (55%) and/or radiation (54%) within the prior 3 months. Patients were most likely to report that cannabis products improved their pain (76%) and nausea/vomiting (76%) (Table 1 Table 1. Patient self-report of receiving benefit (i. e. , symptoms or side effects improved) from can Symptom Number of patients reporting this symptom Benefit n (%) Pain 72 55 (76%) Lack of appetite 67 48 (72%) Sleep loss 78 53 (68%) Irritability 67 46 (69%) Anxiety 70 42 (60%) Nausea/vomiting 58 44 (76%) Depression 61 30 (49%) Fatigue or low energy 78 31 (40%) Headache 51 22 (43%) Neuropathy 57 13 (23%) Lack of sexual interest or activity 61 12 (20%) Sweating, including hot flashes or night sweats 56 6 (11%) ). Patients’ most-reported barriers to cannabis product use were cost (35%) and concern about legal risk (32%). Most patients were in favor of legalizing the medicinal use of THC (94%) and CBD (96%). Most patients were very or extremely likely to use cannabis products in the future (66%). Conclusion: In this cohort of Wisconsin patients with cancer who used cannabis products after diagnosis, the majority perceived cannabis products to be beneficial in managing cancer symptoms, particularly pain. Despite the reported benefits, cost and legality are barriers to cannabis use among Wisconsinites. Citation Format: Apoorva C. Reddy, Jennifer Dykema, Betty Chewning, Kristine Kwekkeboom, Heather Neuman. Cannabis use during cancer treatment: Patterns and perceptions of cannabis use among cancer survivors at a Wisconsin cancer center abstract. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2026; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts) ; 2026 Apr 17-22; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2026;86 (7 Suppl): Abstract nr 1242.
Reddy et al. (Fri,) studied this question.