Whoever thought doctors would suggest the consumption of a drug to cure a disease as serious as cancer? Now, according to a study published in Frontiers in Oncology, it seems that scientists have reached a consensus that medical cannabis can play a vital role in cancer care.
Ryan Castle, the lead author of the study and the research director at the Whole Health Oncology Institute, stated that the study intended to finally solidify the agreement of cannabis’ potential as a cancer treatment. “Our goal was to determine the scientific consensus on the topic of medical cannabis, a field that has long been dominated by a war between cherry-picked studies,” he said.
The study was funded by Cancer Playbook in cooperation with the Whole House Oncology Institute to collect, analyse and share data on patient-reported outcomes.
The study on cannabis and cancer
The study looked at more than 10,000 studies related to medical cannabis and cancer. This large-scale research surpasses the scale of any previous study in the field. To move beyond bias–conscious or not–it was essential to use a large-scale, radically inclusive methodology based on mathematical reasoning,” said Castle. “We wanted to analyse not just a handful, but nearly every major medical cannabis study to find the actual points of scientific agreement”, he added.
In order to analyse these studies, the team made use of an artificial intelligence natural language processing technique called “sentiment analysis”. The technique allowed the researchers to verify how many studies had positive, negative and neutral views.
The shocking results
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Castle and his team hoped to find a “moderate consensus” and had expected the “best case scenario” to be around 55%, about the drug’s potential in cancer treatment.
“It wasn’t 55-45, it was 75-25,” he said. The study overwhelmingly supported the use of cannabis in treating cancer-related inflammation, appetite loss and nausea. Additionally, the surprising results also showcased that the drug could fight cancer cells themselves by killing them and stopping their spread.
“That’s a shocking degree of consensus in public health research, and certainly more than we were anticipating for a topic as controversial as medical cannabis,” said Castle.
How is cannabis used in medicine?
Cannabis is used in medicine in different forms. While dried flowers are inhaled, there are edible forms such as capsules and gummies and topical applications such as liquids, sprays, lotions or gels.
