Cancer is one of the most common & devastating diseases faced by Americans - it is estimated that 1.8 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in the year 2020 alone.
Not only is cancer itself a terribly debilitating disease, but the side effects of common treatments like chemotherapy and radiation also contribute to pain, inflammation, and overall reduced quality of life.
Many prospective medical marijuana patients initially decide to explore cannabis to manage their cancer symptoms and improve their quality of life while undergoing such intense medication protocols.
The benefits of cannabis for nausea, pain management, appetite stimulation, and inflammation reduction have long been prized as tools in the cancer-fighting arsenal - in fact, there is evidence that ancient societies used cannabis as a medicine to relieve these common symptoms of cancer and similar conditions.
Whether you’re a current cancer patient undergoing treatment, a survivor living in remission, or someone with a strong family history of cancer development, many modern integrative medical professionals are beginning to recommend cannabis as part of a healthy supplementation program to support overall wellness for those at risk.
These insights on using cannabis for cancer come from our recent podcast guest Dr. Donald Abrams, an integrative oncologist at the University of California San Francisco’s Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. Prior to working with the applications of cannabis for cancer, Dr. Abrams explored novel uses for cannabis in symptom management during the AIDS crisis of the 1990s, finding it helpful in managing many of the AIDS symptoms also common to cancer.
As Dr. Abrams puts it, he now focuses not only on treating the disease of cancer itself at San Francisco General Hospital, he works on treating people with cancer at the Osher Center for Integrative Oncology through a whole-body approach - because cancer is a weed, and a weed can’t grow in a garden that restricts its ability to survive.
Dr. Abrams believes that cannabis, along with proper diet, exercise, sleep, supplements, and other integrative care options can help make our bodies more inhospitable to cancer by improving our overall health to limit cancer’s ability to thrive.
Dr. Abrams also believes that all oncologists should be recommending cannabis for cancer patients because of its multiple impacts on the symptoms of cancer with very minimal side effects - especially in comparison to those of common pharmaceuticals.
“Here we have one intervention that can decrease nausea. It's the only anti-nausea medicine that can increase appetite.
It's also effective against pain, anxiety, depression, and insomnia.
So instead of writing people prescriptions for four or five different medicines…I can recommend one botanical.
and that is cannabis.” - Dr. Donald Abrams
Dr. Abrams shares his many insights - and the many current limitations - on using cannabis for cancer symptoms in his podcast episode above. He discusses what he’s learned about how cannabis can be a safe and effective part of the integrative cancer care plan to not only possibly extend viable life by several months to years, but to improve end-of-life quality for those with terminal cancer.
3 Key Takeaways on the role of cannabis in integrative cancer treatment:
We still have much to learn about how Cannabis affects Cancer & the related symptoms - while Dr. Abrams agrees that cannabis is likely acting both directly on the cancer cells themselves and also peripherally by improving other areas of health such as sleep and appetite, he is quick to state that we still don’t understand enough about exactly how cannabis interacts with our bodies and cancer cells to conclusively call it a predictably effective cancer “treatment”. Much more hard scientific research is needed to full understand how cannabis is helping in the fight against cancer cells.
However, early scientific evidence suggests that cannabis should be considered as part of an integrative approach to managing quality of life for cancer patients. Dr. Abrams mentions a scientific study coming to print soon which found cannabis helped increase the rate of survival among patients with the most deadly form of brain cancer - a finding Dr. Abrams thinks might be attributed to the rich concentration of CB1 receptors in the brain as part of our Endocannabinoid System allowing THC and other cannabis compounds to interact directly with the brain tumors.
Science also suggests that cannabinoids are able to stunt the growth of new blood vessels to cancer tumors (a process called angiogenesis), limiting their ability to grow and spread to other parts of the body or “metastasize”. Cannabinoids may also be able to induce apoptosis, or programmed cell death, of tumor cells to cause them to shrink. Scientists are working to discover how these mechanisms work in our body and how they might be leveraged in the fight against cancer.
While using cannabis for cancer is promising, finding the right product, dosage, and cannabinoid ratio is very difficult. Current dispensary products offer such a wide array of not only product types, but also THC:CBD ratios and other full spectrum compounds in products, that it can be near impossible to predict exactly what product will be right for the patient. Various consumption methods from smoking to edibles to tinctures may work better for one cancer patient versus another - not only for their type of cancer, but for their unique ECS tone.
These multiple confounding factors make formal scientific research into the efficacy of various cannabis products for fighting cancer extremely difficult. Scientists will need to take measured approaches to reviewing the effects of each class of cannabis products, and then the chemical makeup of those range of products themselves, to get anywhere near conclusive evidence for the effectiveness of one cannabis product or cannabinoid ratio over another for cancer applications.
The only way to currently find products that might help with your individual cancer-related symptoms is through careful experimentation with a wide range of cannabis products, THC:CBD ratios, minor cannabinoids and terpenes, and consumption methods to find what works best for you personally.
That’s why we’re dedicated to offering accessible cannabis education information to help guide you on your cannabis use journey toward successful management of your health & wellness.
You can find more cannabis-science focused educational resources on our cannabis caramel edible website, and subscribe to our podcast for the latest updates on cannabis science from experts in the field.
DISCLAIMER:
Cannabis & cannabis products have not been evaluated or approved by the FDA to treat any medical condition. All statements made in this article and the included media are the personal stories & experiences of the participants only, and do not constitute direct medical recommendations or advice. Consult with a licensed medical professional prior to any changes to medication regimens or trying cannabis for medicinal purposes.