What’s claimed to be the largest ever study delving into the use of medical cannabis for treating and managing cancer has been published.
Researchers from the USA’s Whole Health Oncology Institute and Chopra Foundation engaged in a meta-analysis of thousands of studies on medical cannabis to determine if there was any consensus on its therapeutic potential, safety profile, and role in cancer treatment. The exercise involved more than 10,000 peer-reviewed research papers and sentiment analysis.
Their work revealed significant consensus supporting the use of medical cannabis in terms of health metrics, cancer treatments, and cancer dynamics.
“The aggregated correlation strength of cannabis across all cancer topics indicates that support for medical cannabis is 31.38× stronger than opposition to it.”
Aside from benefits in treatment, including addressing side-effects from conventional treatments such as chemotherapy, a very interesting observation was the anti-carcinogenic potential of cannabis showed robust support, suggesting a reliable consensus in this area. But the researchers also noted that topics such as remission presented weaker or unclear associations.
But the overall picture is a positive one.
“The consistent correlation strengths for cannabis as both a palliative adjunct and a potential anticarcinogenic agent redefine the consensus around cannabis as a medical intervention,” state the researchers.
The findings certainly challenges the notion that medical cannabis has no accepted medical use, one of the criteria that saw it designated as a Schedule I substance in the USA alongside substances including heroin, LSD and MDMA.
Among the limitations acknowledged in the study was the use of sentiment analysis that inevitably includes inaccuracies, and in this case the study was additionally dependent on machine learning.
Whole Health Oncology Institute describes itself as an organisation providing comprehensive and credible information on the use of integrative treatments, including medicinal cannabis, in cancer treatment. The Chopra Foundation focuses on conducting scientific research examining the effects of mind-body practices on health and wellbeing.
The study, titled “Meta-analysis of medical cannabis outcomes and associations with cancer” has been published in the journal Frontiers in Oncology.
Trivia: The study also points out the earliest recorded mention of the use of medical cannabis dates to 2737 BC in the pharmacopeia of Chinese Emperor Shen Nung, where it was recommended for a myriad ailments including rheumatism, gout, and malaria.
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