Study: Cannabis is a Safe, Effective Palliative Treatment for Cancer Patients
According to a study of nearly 3,000 people, cannabis seems to be a safe, effective and well tolerated palliative treatment for cancer.
The study was published in the European Journal of Internal Medicine, and published online by the U.S. National Institute of Health. The aim of the study “is to characterize the epidemiology of cancer patients receiving medical cannabis treatment and describe the safety and efficacy of this therapy.”
To do so, researchers “analyzed the data routinely collected as part of the treatment program of 2970 cancer patients treated with medical cannabis between 2015 and 2017.” Among the patients, the “average age was 59.5 ± 16.3 years, 54.6% women and 26.7% of the patients reported previous experience with cannabis.” The most frequent types of cancer were: “breast (20.7%), lung (13.6%), pancreatic (8.1%) and colorectal (7.9%) with 51.2% being at stage 4. “The main symptoms requiring therapy were: “sleep problems (78.4%), pain (77.7%, median intensity 8/10), weakness (72.7%), nausea (64.6%) and lack of appetite (48.9%).”
After six months of follow up, “902 patients (24.9%) died and 682 (18.8%) stopped the treatment. Of the remaining, 1211 (60.6%) responded; 95.9% reported an improvement in their condition, 45 patients (3.7%) reported no change and four patients (0.3%) reported deterioration in their medical condition.
The study concludes by stating that; “Cannabis as a palliative treatment for cancer patients seems to be well tolerated, effective and safe option to help patients cope with the malignancy related symptoms.
The full study and its abstract can be found by clicking here.