Medical Cannabis “Safe and Effective” For Cancer Patients, Study

A new study reveals what many already know: medical cannabis is safe and effective for cancer patients.

The study of 358 adults with cancer found a 1:1 balance of THC and CBD significantly helped reduce pain intensity and the interference of pain in daily life.

The Canadian-based research also found that with medical cannabis, cancer patients had a reduced need for other drugs.

Why Is Cannabis Popular With Cancer Patients? 

Before getting into the latest study on medical cannabis, let’s look at why cannabis has been popular with cancer patients.

While research studies can provide insight and confirmation, a study’s abstract means little to a terminally ill patient suffering severe pain daily.

What do anecdotal reports have to tell us?

Cannabis patients have reported that medical cannabis is suitable for:

• Treating nausea associated with chemotherapy 
• Relieving pain
• Increasing appetite
• Improving sleep 

This study on medical cannabis for cancer patients examines cannabis and pain relief.

Can Cannabis Cure Cancer?

Whenever the topic of medical cannabis for cancer patients arises, so often does the question: can cannabis cure cancer?

Cannabis indeed treats cancer. Cannabinoids have a role in preventing and killing malignant cells that like to grow and spread uncontrollably. That might sound like cancer, but technically there are over 200 types. 

Currently, no clinical evidence shows that medical cannabis can cure all types of cancer. Or any kind of it.

However, it’s important to remember philosopher Paul Feyerabend.

According to the 20th-century Austrian thinker, cultural, political, and economic factors influence scientific theories and methods. As well as chance events.

The scientific community tends to suppress alternative and unconventional ideas. This, according to Feyerabend, stunts scientific progress and stagnates creativity.

Feyerabend’s Against Method may appear abstract or speculative – but people who have witnessed the miracle of Rick Simpson oil may beg to differ.

If medical cannabis cured cancer patients, there would be pushback from those who profited from their sickness. 

Cannabis cures cancer would be “misinformation” that needed rebuttal by “fact-checkers.” Where the lack of clinical evidence becomes a scientific consensus. Where cannabis does not treat cancer; it merely helps eases the symptoms. 

But even so, scientific theories are incommensurable.

Details of the Study

The study was conducted by researchers from the Royal College of Surgeons Dublin and Cedars Cancer Centre in Canada and published in BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care. It involved 358 adults with cancer and took over three and a half years.

The average age of the patients was 57. There were slightly more women than men.

The researchers found medical cannabis to be “a safe and effective complementary treatment for pain relief in patients with cancer.”

A quarter of the patients took THC-dominant products, 17% took CBD-dominant products, and 38% took THC-CBD balanced products.

Researchers found products with a 1:1 balance of THC and CBD to be the most effective.

The cancer patients chosen for the study varied. However, two-thirds were terminally ill and experienced moderate to severe pain daily.

Only five patients reported feeling dizzy or tired. Most patients reported much less pain and better quality of life when taking cannabis products.

Patients reported their findings at three, six, nine, and twelve months. Researchers say that the reduction in pain experienced by the patients – compared to baseline values – was “significant.”

They concluded that medical cannabis is a “safe” and “complementary” option to conventional cancer treatments.

“Our data suggest a role for medicinal cannabis as a safe and complementary treatment option in patients with cancer failing to reach adequate pain relief through conventional analgesics, such as opioids.”

Unfortunately, the researchers did not conduct their inquiry with a control group. Confirmation from more rigorous trials would help.

But you don’t need to tell medical cannabis patients with cancer what works. They know. They experience it.

And sometimes, a “gut-feeling” or first-hand experience really does overrule the scientific method.