A new solution to an old problem. Cancer treatment with CBD

According to statistics, every two minutes, someone in the UK hears the devastating diagnosis — cancer. Two minutes. It’s not enough to drink your espresso or eat the morning sandwich. Two minutes that can turn the life upside down. However, as disappointing and shocking this news could be, life goes on, and the struggle with a disease begins.

Statistics of 2018 states that every fifth man and every sixth woman is at risk of getting cancer at some stage of life. However, this disease is not a sentence — some cancers may be successful. With modern methods of diagnostics, it is possible to reveal the disease at a very early stage, thereby increasing the probability of a successful outcome and reducing the side effect during and after the treatment.

Not so long ago, cancer was considered a death sentence. In 1970, only 5% of patients with a diagnosis of lymphoma survived, while in medical textbooks, almost every type of cancer was indicated as the disease with “pure prognosis.” Nearly half a century has passed, but the belief that cancer is a fatal disease has firmly rooted in people’s minds. Hearing the “oncology” diagnosis, many patients begin to say goodbye to life. 10% of patients refuse treatment entirely, while 20% are afraid to seek medical help after noticing the adverse symptoms. However, during recent years, the situation in terms of the effectiveness of cancer treatment has changed a lot. Of the 8 million cases reported worldwide in 2000, only 5.2 million were fatal, which is equal to 62%. According to world statistics, every year, the number of people who successfully overcome cancer is growing:

In addition to this, general global statistics take into account developing countries in which the level of medical care is low. If considering the developed countries, the improvements in cancer treatment are even more apparent. For example, in the United States for the period from 1991 to 2015, the number of people beat cancer increased by 26%. Today, the average survival rates in the countries of the former CIS are about 50%, in France 60%, and in America 64%. Also, children have better forecasts in comparison with adults. Among them, the survival rate in the world is 83% since 2010. Therefore, nowadays, the statement that “cancer = death” can be attributed to the category of myths.

For today, among the most popular methods of cancer treatment are:

All of these methods are usually the first options. However, even with the comparably high success rate, the debilitating side effects accompanying each of these treatments have become the main reason for patients to seek a safer alternative. More and more often today, we see a new cancer treatment method appearing in life science journals, as well as Google search pages. This method lies in using the ever-versatile cannabidiol or CBD as it is more commonly known as a complementary agent for other cancer therapies. Let’s find out how does this agent work and what are its main benefits.

With all this worldwide hype around cannabis and its compounds called cannabinoids, it seems that we already know everything there is to know. However, the situation with its legality in different countries, as well as with its new benefits and methods of use, changes almost every day. We have highlighted four most frequently asked questions regarding cannabis and its components.

We used to think that cannabinoids can be used only for affecting our mind and mood. However, recent studies have shown that these compounds may significantly influence our health condition and treat different diseases and conditions. Today, in the United States, cannabis belongs to the list of controlled substances and is classified as a Schedule 1 agent. It means that it is considered as a drug with a high potential of abuse and is not officially accepted for medical use. According to federal law, marijuana possession is illegal in the United States, unless it is used for approved research programs. Nevertheless, a growing number of states and territories, including the District of Columbia have passed laws to legalise medical marijuana and currently can officially use it for medicinal purposes.

Through many detailed experiments, studies, and clinical trials, scientists have discovered that both natural and synthetic cannabinoids might have a wide range of effects on cells.

Besides other CBD benefits that have been proved earlier, one new opportunity of its use began to appear more and more often in the headings of scientific reviews and blog articles on Google. This new CBD benefit is its use for cancer treatment. With a quite limited number of opportunities to treat cancer today, this one sounds like a new promising way out of the situation. It gives hope both for patients struggling for their life and for scientists who are in a permanent search of the new effective remedy for cancer treatment. How large is the gap between the theory and practice regarding the use of CBD for cancer patients? Have its benefits been approved during the research and clinical studies? For the moment, there are more questions than answers. Hundreds of scientific articles have been published evaluating the connection between cannabinoids and cancer cells. However, any of these studies still haven’t found enough robust scientific evidence to prove that CBD oil can safely and effectively treat cancer. Research and trials are continuing, involving the hundreds of scientists all over the globe investigating the cannabinoid’s potential for cancer treatment.

Despite a number of favourable results of studies, claims that there is official proof that cannabis or cannabinoids can treat cancer are highly misleading both to patients and their families, giving the unconfirmed hope and false picture of the state of the progress in general. Some positive results have been achieved, and this is not fake information from the Internet. However, there is one “but” — all the scientific studies and research held for today have been performed using animals or cancer cells that were grown in the lab. Humans are more complex than animals, which is no surprise, so the results demonstrated after the studies might not work as well for people as they did in animal trials. Today, this is the main obstacle for approval of CBD oil as a potential medication that can be used for cancer treatment. Also, it is the main explanation of why such promising and prospective results from laboratory studies can’t be translated into a safe and effective treatment for humans.

For the moment, the best results demonstrated by lab studies have come from using a combination of CBD and THC. However, researchers have also obtained favourable results after using synthetic (human-made) cannabinoids called JWH-133. Intriguing results have also been obtained from experiments studying different cancers such as glioblastoma brain tumours, breast, lung, prostate, and pancreatic cancers. The researchers have discovered that different cannabinoids seem to have different effects on various types of cancer. It means that CBD alone can’t become a universal treatment for all cancer types. In addition to this, it has also been shown that cannabinoids, along with benefits, also have side effects. Research showed that although high doses of THC can kill cancer cells, they may also harm blood vessel cells. Also, some specialists claim that cannabinoids may encourage cancer cells to grow instead of killing them. We will discuss this issue later in our article.

So what exactly is CBD oil, and how can it kill cancer cells? Cannabidiol rightfully can be considered as a pharmacological wonder of our century. Its anti-anxiety, antioxidant, anti-psychotic, anti-convulsant, and analgesic properties place it in the same row with other time-tested medications. Due to its antiemetic, cytotoxic, and anti-inflammatory effects, cannabidiol has triggered increased attention to its possible use as a potent anti-cancer agent. There is quite a large number of research confirming this theory, although until the double-blind placebo-controlled trials are held, we can’t say anything for sure. If successful results obtained in animal studies can be replicated in human trials with the same positive result, CBD may become a complete game-changer.

Along with the existing cancer treatments, this compound might be able to provide the same beneficial effect but with much less side effects. Such an ability of cannabidiol to kill cancer cells in animals and in vitro studies suggests it has all the chances to change the cancer treatment in general one day. How does this agent work and what are its main benefits if considering its use for cancer treatment?

A growing interest in treating children with cannabis or cannabinoids has appeared recently. Currently, studies are still limited, and more pediatric trials are needed due to the concerns about the CBD’s effect on brain development.

From the moment when CBD oil was confirmed to prevent seizures among both children and adults with rare forms of epilepsy, the number of research has risen dramatically. Regarding cancer treatment, research is continuing, although there are already specific results about different types of cancer.

Another vital question regarding cannabinoids use for cancer treatment is whether CBD can prevent cancer or, vice versa, it can cause it? For the moment, we don’t have enough reliable evidence that cannabis can prevent cancer. A range of studies has been held suggesting that certain cannabinoids can surpass the tumour growth. Also, several experiments on mice, including very high doses of THC, provided us with the results suggesting that mice seemed to have a lower risk of cancer development. Nevertheless, there is still not enough proven information and solid scientific evidence to confidently suggest that CBD can reduce cancer risk.

Continuing the theme of various cancer risks linked to smoking cannabis, we have collected several studies:

Larger studies that would follow patients over time are needed. Only in such cases, it would be possible to find out if there is a link between cannabis use and a higher risk of certain types of tumours appearance.

Nowadays, with a sharp rise in the CBD industry, there is a wide choice of cannabidiol products to choose from. How not to be mistaken with the choice and what is the correct CBD dosage? Let’s take a closer look at the CBD forms available for purchasing today:

Another crucial moment regarding CBD oil taking is the correct dosage. The numerous lab and animal studies have shown that many of cannabidiol effects are dose-dependent. Such a dependence is displayed in the form of an inverted bell, meaning that each user will have a different dosage amount. In the UK, cannabidiol is still considered a food supplement. Thus there still aren’t any official guidelines regarding its correct dosage. Thank God, we live in the 21st century and there is plenty of information available on the Internet for anyone deciding to choose CBD oil for treatment. The best method for today to find your optimal CBD dosage is Dr Sulak’s method. Dr Dustin Sulak is a physician from the USA who created a very simple guide for finding the right dosage for you. This method doesn’t depend on the CBD form you use. First of all, it is recommended to start with a very small amount of CBD (1–5mg) in the morning. Then, after one hour, you should ask yourself three questions:

After this, you should rate your scores from one to ten and continue doing this every hour. In case your scores are the same after the first several hours, then you can slowly increase your dose and rate yourself again. You should continue doing this until you feel the noticeable difference. Eventually, you will reach the point when increasing the dosage will not result in higher scores. It means you have found your optimal dosage.

CBD oil is considered as a remarkably safe agent both in studies of human clinical data and anecdotal reports. Some of the researchers even stated that cannabidiol has a better side effects profile than most modern pharmaceutical drugs. Nevertheless, some rare side effects have been reported:

According to the research available today, cannabidiol could be supportive for different types of cancer. Studies have shown that CBD can trigger cell death and, at the same time, doesn’t affect healthy cells. Also, it was revealed that cannabidiol has the potential to prevent cancer cell migration. Due to its angiogenic properties, this cannabinoid could prevent the formation of new blood vessels, thereby worsening the tumour nutrition and making metastasis less likely. In addition to this, it was shown that CBD oil could reduce cancer invasiveness.

Studies results have also shown that cannabinoids have an anti-proliferative effect. It means that these agents slow down the growth and spread of cancer cells. Due to these effects, CBD combats cell migration, invasion, and adhesion. Such a beneficial combination of effects makes CBD an advantageous complement to the existing cancer treatments. Furthermore, most common cancer therapy methods often have significant side effects, while cannabidiol can boast of their almost complete absence. Besides this, CBD oil might also have a supportive effect on conventional cancer treatment by reducing such chemotherapy-induced side effects as nausea and vomiting.

Cannabidiol could be beneficial for breast cancer, bladder cancer, skin cancer, lymphoma, leukaemia, and other cancers both for animals and humans. There is still a lot of work to be done to discover all the CBD’s benefits and side effects for cancer treatment. Nevertheless, scientists all over the world are optimistic and claim that cannabis-based medicine will be widely used not only in cancer treatment but in other treatments as well in the near future.

Anastasiia Myronenko

Anastasiia Myronenko is a Medical Physicist actively practicing in one of the leading cancer centers in Kyiv, Ukraine. She received her master’s degree in Medical Physics at Karazin Kharkiv National University and completed Biological Physics internship at GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, Germany. Anastasiia Myronenko specializes in radiation therapy and is a fellow of Ukrainian Association of Medical Physicists.

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