Harvard-affiliated Institute Claims Cannabis is Effective Against Pancreatic Cancer
On Oncologist Day, the professional responsible for diagnosing and treating the disease, understand how cannabis therapy can assist in combating pancreatic cancer, a type particularly resistant to modern therapies.
Published on 07/09/2022
By João R. Negromonte
Today, July 9, we celebrate Oncologist Day, the physician responsible for diagnosing and treating cancer patients. To honor these professionals, we bring you research conducted in 2019 by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, affiliated with Harvard Medical School and one of the leading treatment and research centers for the disease in the world, which shows the therapeutic potential of cannabis compounds against pancreatic cancer, one of the most aggressive types among all others.
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As shown in the study, researchers were able to eliminate malignant tumors in rats with pancreatic cancer using only a few flavonoids derived from cannabis and plant extracts. Furthermore, they observed that cannabis may work better than radiotherapy and conventional treatments.
“Plant extracts are perhaps a more effective alternative than synthetic cannabinoids,” says the research. This is due to the entourage effect, in which the different chemical components of cannabis resin, such as cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids, interact with each other and with the human body to achieve therapeutic and medicinal effects.
In this case, scientists found that cannabis flavonoids (compounds that give color to plants) played a crucial role in reducing pancreatic tumors, which is of great relevance to researchers because, according to some studies, pancreatic cancer has a very high mortality rate and is usually detected late.
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Such results highlight the importance of studying the whole plant and its different strains, as we know that each variety of cannabis is a universe in itself. Therefore, placing the cultivation of the plant for medicinal and research purposes at a central place is increasingly necessary.
Thus, according to the research, the aim of this work is to design a protocol that can be replicated in humans with pancreatic cancer, bringing more treatment alternatives for, as previously stated, one of the most dangerous cancers that exist.
