Medical Marijuana Could Increase Efficacy Of Chemotherapy To Fight Cancer While Reducing Side Effects

Cannabinoids in medical marijuana can both increase the efficacy of chemotherapy drugs and also minimize the often uncomfortable side-effects of conventional cancer treatment, according to a new scientific review of available evidence.

The 23-page paper, published online this month in the journal Pharmacology & Therapeutics, assesses a range of clinical and preclinical findings that “mainly relate to combination treatments for glioblastoma, hematological malignancies and breast cancer, but also for other cancer types.”

“To summarize,” says the report, “the data available to date raise the prospect that cannabinoids may increase the efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents while reducing their side effects.”

It notes that preclinical studies on specific anticancer effects of cannabinoids are limited, looking mostly at whether those compounds are toxic to cancer cells. Other research, authors point out—including into the immune system and cannabinoids’ effects on angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels), invasion and cancer metastasis—”is still pending.”

Overall, while the interactions between cannabinoids and chemotherapeutics “constitute a complex subject with many yet unknown variables,” the study says, there are “two important therapy-relevant aspects of the interaction between cannabinoids and chemotherapeutic agents that could potentially benefit cancer patients: firstly, the systemic potentiation of chemotherapeutics by cannabinoids, primarily leading to an extension of life by overcoming therapy resistance and secondly, the reduction of chemotherapy-induced side effects.”

Read the full story at Marijuana Moment