Humans have used marijuana to treat various ailments for millennia. Evidence dates back all the way to ancient China, where emperors used cannabis-infused tea to relieve pain from tooth or headaches. Since then, we’ve cultivated medical marijuana to treat symptoms of several illnesses.
Notably, one prescription drug for severe epilepsy uses cannabinoids as its active ingredient. With new medical applications for weed popping up more and more frequently, it’s bringing more attention to one age-old question: can weed help manage cancer?
The idea that weed may be able to help cancer patients isn’t a new one. It first arose during the 1960s and 1970s, and quickly proliferated throughout cannabis culture. Although weed’s efficiency in countering cancer has never been clinically tested on humans, studies on animals have provided some startling insight about how plant medicine may be able to help.
There’s a lot of rumour surrounding the effects of marijuana on cancer. In fact, the efficacy of cannabis as a cancer treatment is still undetermined. As a result, we only included information from peer-reviewed sources and reputable healthcare organizations in our guide to marijuana and cancer.
How Do Cannabinoids Work?
Before we go over how marijuana may help cancer patients, it’s important to understand how cannabinoids work. Weed affects the body by sending messages via its endocannabinoid system (ECS). The ECS controls several different unconscious bodily functions like immune system response, inflammation, appetite, and sleep. It has three main components: endocannabinoids (naturally-occurring neurotransmitters), receptors, and enzymes.
When an endocannabinoid binds to a receptor, it tells the body to perform a task. Cannabinoids, which are similar to endocannabinoids, can trick the ECS into triggering several possible effects. The ECS can control factors like immune system responses, inflammation, appetite, and cancer cell signaling. Cell signalling is a process that involves cells sending messages to one another, and it can be the cause behind cancer spreading. This last aspect may be what gives cannabinoids their cancer-fighting properties.
Cannabis as Medicine
Weed was relatively unknown as a medicine to the western world until the 19th century, when Irish and French doctors catalogued weed’s ability to reduce pain, nausea, chronic pain, tetanus, and more. The two main cannabinoids with possible health benefits are cannabidiol (CBD) and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Cannabinoids and Cancer
Marijuana’s ability to treat cancer is broken down into two core components. First, medical professionals generally have a positive consensus about weed’s usefulness as a palliative care tool for patients undergoing cancer treatment. In addition, marijuana may be able to actually reduce the spread of tumours, although there’s still plenty of research surrounding this topic.
Cannabis and Secondary Cancer Symptoms
One of the major ways that weed can help cancer patients is through controlling secondary cancer symptoms – known as palliative care. For example, the American Cancer Society (ACS) recognizes that marijuana can treat the nausea and vomiting that chemotherapy patients suffer. This can help cancer patients find their appetites, and food intake is a critical component in chemotherapy recovery. Finally, weed can make you sleepy (as any regular stoner will tell you). As a result, it can help chemotherapy patients maintain a regular sleep schedule.
The ACS also notes that people who used cannabis tended to need less pain medication. In fact, one pharmaceutical drug prescribed to treat cancer-related pain has been approved for use in Canada called Nabiximols (also known by the brand name Sativex). The drug was first developed in 2010, and found acceptance in health systems throughout Europe, Asia, and in Canada. Outside of cannabis-related pain, Sativex is prescribed to treat multiple sclerosis.
Marijuana and Tumours
In addition to its possible value in palliative cancer care, cannabis may actually be able to fight certain types of cancer. Some studies have shown that cannabinoids like THC and CBD can reduce the growth rate of tumours in mice. Since they inhibit cancer cell growth, they may be able to slow the overall progression of the disease.
In addition, data shows that cannabinoids don’t inhibit the growth of normal, healthy cells. Instead, they appear to specifically target cancer cells, with many sources citing marijuana as a promising potential weapon against cancer.
That’s not all, though. Some researchers also contend that cannabis can trigger cancer cell apoptosis. Apoptosis is a type of controlled cell death, and it’s the body’s main way to destroy cancer cells naturally. As a result, cannabis may be able to help sharpen the body’s own cancer-fighting systems, reducing the size of tumours.
Additionally, the same sources suggest that cannabinoids can prevent cancer from becoming metastatic. When cancer becomes metastatic, it migrates from one part of the body to another, usually through the limbic system or the circulatory system.
By metastasizing, cancer can start in one area – like a patient’s lungs – and move somewhere else, like their brain. Once cancer becomes metastatic, it is nearly impossible to cure. As a result, cannabis’ possible ability to hinder metastasis could be a groundbreaking discovery.
One prominent proponent for using cannabis as an anti-cancer agent is a Canadian named Rick Simpson. Simpson contracted cancer after years of work as an engineer, and heard about the possible cancer-fighting properties of cannabinoids. Against the wishes of his doctor, Simpson used a topical cannabis solution to treat himself. He claims that his homemade cannabis ointment cured him, and his creation, dubbed Rick Simpson Oil (RSO), is now available in dispensaries throughout Canada.
Cannabinoids Fighting Cancer
So, with all that we’ve covered, what overall effect does cannabis have on cancer? While it’s true that cannabinoids show great promise as a potential anti-cancer agent, the results are still fairly preliminary. Since most of the research surrounding cannabis and cancer comes from animal trials, we still need to determine if humans will receive the same benefits.
Since all vertebrates have an ECS, cannabis should work the same way on lab animals as it does for us. If that’s true, it could solidify marijuana’s place as a groundbreaking new cancer treatment. Until we get more data, though, it’s impossible to make the call.