Medical Marijuana: Pain Relief For Cancer Patients And Helps Ease Chemo Brain, Studies Find

Cannabis helps with cancer-related pain, a Canadian team of experts has concluded.

Their study, published in BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, confirmed that medicinal marijuana is a "safe and effective complementary treatment for pain relief in patients with cancer." 

Of 358 cancer patients who participated in the study, roughly a quarter took THC-dominant products, 38% used THC-CBD-balanced drugs and 17% took CBD-dominant products. Interestingly, in November, a group of Australian researchers discovered that CBD oil without THC does not help advanced cancer patients with pain, depression, anxiety and overall quality of life.

However, according to Canadian scientists, patients taking part in their study confirmed that cannabis medicines helped them to maintain their daily routine while feeling much less pain.

To confirm their findings, researchers from Montreal's McGill University, Harvard Medical School and Dublin's Royal College of Surgeons undertook a comparative study using a dummy drug.

"Our findings should be confirmed through randomized placebo-controlled trials," the researchers said.

For now, only specialist doctors can prescribe cannabis-based medicines in the UK for a limited number of conditions, including rare and severe forms of epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, to name a few.

Chemo Brain

Researchers from the University of Colorado, Boulder, recently found that using cannabis can alleviate chemotherapy side effects, including those affecting a patient's brain, commonly called chemo brain.

Cannabis researcher at CU Boulder, Prof Angela Bryan joined forces with oncologists Drs. Ross Camidge and Daniel Bowles at the UC Anschutz Medical Campus to address the issue. 

"We thought we might see some problems with cognitive function," Bryan said, referring to the fact that both chemo and cannabis could lead to impaired cognition. "But people actually felt like they were thinking more clearly. It was a surprise."

Growing Body Of Research

Meanwhile, the new findings build on an earlier Technion study published by Frontiers in Pain Research, which found that almost half of the patients enrolled in the research discontinued their other pain medication after six months of medical cannabis treatment.

Australian researchers went a step further, examining the safety and efficacy of a novel water-soluble oro-buccal nanoparticle spray of cannabis-based medicine in patients with advanced incurable malignancy with unrelieved pain from opioids. The study published in the journal PLOS One showed that patients diagnosed with breast and prostate cancers with bone metastases experienced the most relief.

In addition to helping lower the pain in oncology patients, medical cannabis also alleviated other symptoms, the study found.

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