Analysis aims to solidify agreement on cannabis's potential as a cancer treatment, lead author of research says
The largest ever study investigating medical cannabis as a treatment for cancer, published this week in Frontiers in Oncology, found overwhelming scientific support for cannabis's potential to treat cancer symptoms and potentially fight the course of the disease itself. The intention of the analysis was to solidify agreement on cannabis's potential as a cancer treatment, said Ryan Castle, research director at the Whole Health Oncology Institute and lead author of the study. Castle noted that it has been historically difficult to do so because marijuana is still federally considered an illegal Schedule I narcotic. "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 cherrypicked studies," Castle said. The study was funded by Cancer Playbook, which works with the Whole House Oncology Institute to collect, analyze and share data on patient-reported outcomes. While research restrictions on Schedule I substances severely hamper clinical research on cannabis in humans, there is a large body of observational studies on medical cannabis and cancer – as well as lab research – that looks at cannabis's effect on tumors in test tubes and in animals. The analysis included as many of those studies as possible. "In order to move beyond bias – conscious or not – it was essential to use a large-scale, radically inclusive methodology based on mathematical reasoning," Castle said, adding: "We wanted to analyze not just a handful, but nearly every major medical cannabis study to find the actual points of scientific agreement." Castle's study looked at more than 10,000 studies on cannabis and cancer, which he said is "10 times the sample size of the next largest study, which we…