Cannabis may halt breast cancer: Study

LONDON: A compound found in cannabis may stop breast cancer spreading throughout the body, US scientists believe.

The California Pacific Medical Centre Research Institute team are hopeful that cannabidiol or CBD could be a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy.

Unlike cannabis, CBD does not have any psychoactive properties so its use would not violate laws, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics reports.

The authors stressed that they were not suggesting patients smoke marijuana. They added that it would be highly unlikely that effective concentrations of CBD could be reached by smoking cannabis.

CBD works by blocking the activity of a gene called Id-1 which is believed to be responsible for the aggressive spread of cancer cells away from the original tumour site — a process called metastasis.

Past work has shown CBD can block aggressive human brain cancers.

The work found CBD appeared to have a similar effect on breast cancer cells in the lab.
Researcher Sean McAllister said: “Right now we have a limited range of options in treating aggressive forms of cancer. Those treatments, such as chemotherapy, can be effective but they can also be extremely toxic and difficult for patients.

This compound offers the hope of a non-toxic therapy that achieves the same results without any of the painful side effects.” Dr Joanna Owens of Cancer Research UK said:
“This research is at a very early stage. The findings will need to be followed up with clinical trials in humans to see if the CBD is safe, and whether the beneficial effects can
be replicated.”