Cancer is absolutely one of the worst things on this planet. If you or a loved one has suffered from cancer then you know firsthand how awful it is.
Scientists and doctors have worked countless hours over many decades to try to get to the bottom of what causes cancer in an attempt to try to prevent it, as well as working to determine what treatments are effective for people that develop cancer.
The cannabis plant is often the subject of cancer treatment research, with quite a bit of research determining that cannabis seems to be beneficial to some extent.
That is what researchers in Israel seemed to find when they recently conducted a medical cannabis study involving oncology patients.
“The use of medical cannabis (MC) to treat cancer-related symptoms is rising. However, there is a lack of long-term trials to assess the benefits and safety of MC treatment in this population. In this work, we followed up prospectively and longitudinally on the effectiveness and safety of MC treatment,” the researchers stated.
“Oncology patients reported on multiple symptoms before and after MC treatment initiation at one-, three-, and 6-month follow-ups. Oncologists reported on the patients’ disease characteristics. Intention-to-treat models were used to assess changes in outcomes from baseline. MC treatment was initiated by 324 patients and 212, 158 and 126 reported at follow-ups,” the researchers stated regarding the study’s methodology.
“Most outcome measures improved significantly during MC treatment for most patients (p < 0.005). Specifically, at 6 months, total cancer symptoms burden declined from baseline by a median of 18%, from 122 (82-157) at baseline to 89 (45-138) at endpoint (−18.98; 95%CI= −26.95 to −11.00; p < 0.001). Reported adverse effects were common but mostly non-serious and remained stable during MC treatment,” researchers said.
“The results of this study suggest that MC treatment is generally safe for oncology patients and can potentially reduce the burden of associated symptoms with no serious MC-related adverse effects,” researchers said.
Feel free to share the results of this study with people you know. As always, make sure to consult with your doctor before starting any medical treatment, including medical cannabis treatment.