Could Cannabidiol used alongside the chemotherapy drug Gemcitabine help survival rates of patients with Pancreatic cancer?
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth major cause of all cancer deaths, and is expected to rise to become the second major cause by 2030. Survival rates have barely changed in the last 40 years, with current survival rate for advanced patients averaging five years.
Could CBD give a glimmer of hope for these patients?
A Study from Queen Mary University, London, has found that mice undergoing chemotherapy therapy for the disease survived almost three times longer if they were also receiving cannabis extract, Cannabidiol (CBD), consecutively.
Ten mice were given CBD, whilst eight were given the chemotherapy drug Gemcitabine, seven more were given both of the drugs and nine were given a placebo.
Mice given CBD alone lived just over 25 days. The mice given Gemcitabine lived 28 days. Whilst mice given the placebo drug averaged around 19 days.
However, when the two drugs were combined the effects proved to be quite a dramatic improvement, with the survival time increasing to almost 53 days.
With Cannabidiol already being approved for use in clinics, medics are hopeful that they can quickly go on to test this theory in human medical trials, with the hope that they can soon make the move for cannabidiol to be used in cancer clinics almost immediately.
Cannabidiol is extracted from the hemp plant, and is legal in most countries around the world due to it's low levels of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). This means that users experience none of the side effects normally associated with THC which can include increased heart rate, dizziness, and paranoia.
So far the study has only been tested on mice, but with such positive results researchers have recommended further studies be carried out with the objective being clinical translation← Older Post Newer Post →
