With the American Cancer Society’s gloomy new forecast on breast cancer in women – living in the United States – soaring well above 230,000 new cases for 2013. And an additional 64,000 new cases of carcinoma of the breast – and north of 39,000 deaths this year alone. A welcome new study published by the British Journal of Pharmacology has discovered that marijuana’s non-psychoactive cannabinoid, CBD, not only protects breast cancer patients from neurotoxicity – it greatly reduces the pain associated with chemotherapy drugs. Additionally, the CBD cannabinoid has now been shown to magnify the cancer fighting capabilities of Western medicine.
To hear the researchers tell it; “Paclitaxel (PAC) is associated with a chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain (CIPN) state that can lead to the cessation of treatment in late stage breast cancer patients, even in the absence of alternate therapies.’ They state that; “Indeed, to date no one drug or drug class is considered to be effective for reversal of CIPN.”
Searching the known pharmacopeia for compounds that could mitigate the chemotherapy induced, neuropathic pain, the good scientists involved in the study decided to go back to basics – researching the effects of the CBD cannabinoid on mice with breast cancer – that has been administered PAC.
What they found, was not shocking:
“Our data suggest that CBD is protective against PAC-induced neurotoxicity and that this effect is in part mediated by the 5-TH1A receptor system”, claims researchers. “Furthermore, CBD treatment was devoid of other nervous system effects such as conditioned reward or cognitive impairment. CBD also did not attenuate the efficacy of PAC in inhibiting breast cancer cell viability.”
Their conclusion was straightforward – “Taken together, adjunct treatment with CBD during PAC chemotherapy treatment may be safe and effective in the prevention or attenuation of CIPN.”
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