Human Clinical Trial Investigates Cannabis As Brain Cancer Treatment

A human trial is investigating cannabis as a brain cancer treatment set to begin this year at the Complutense University in Madrid. Clinical trials are mostly non-existent for medical marijuana.

Some studies have shown promise for glaucoma, pain, nausea, loss of appetite, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis. Now new cell culture and animal studies for one type of brain cancer, glioma, have been very promising. Scientists are now crowdfunding for a new human study to investigate its potential therapeutic benefits.

Walacea, is the crowd funding platform. Same platform that sought funds for human LSD brain imaging project.

What are the researchers saying?

"Donating to cannabis medical research is essential to highlight the potential of cannabinoids to treat a range of conditions"

Why is public money needed? Like heroin and LSD, marijuana is a Schedule 1 drug. Schedule 1 means: either deemed as having no accepted medical treatment use or there is a lack of accepted safety for its use.

Has been legalized for medicinal or personal use in some US states. But control placed on drugs within this category makes scientific research into their therapeutic uses virtually impossible. Law exists to protect people, but at the same time makes it hard to figure out potential medicinal uses for compounds in marijuana working.

This is especially frustrating for cancer patients wishing to use the drug  therapeutically. Patients are also forced to rely on forums or hearsay. Dangerous because doses are not based on clinical evidence. Potential study on Gliomas, a common type of brain cancer

Gliomas account for 45% of cases.Tendency to grow into normal brain tissue. Surgical removal is difficult. Parts of tumor can remain in brain. This creates opportunity for metastasis. Organ is inaccessible to many therapeutic agents because of protective blood-brain barrier means. 

Makes gliomas very difficult to treat. The study: cannabinoids can rapidly cross the blood brain barrier. This means they can activate so-called cannabinoid receptors. One effect is potential antitumor activity, demonstrated in various different cancerous tissues in the lab.

Cannabinoids seem to cause cells that drive glioma progression and recurrence, called glioma-initiating cells, to self-destruct in the lab. If this works in human trials then this could battle cancer in glioma patients in a new way.

Problem is that scientists can't conduct proper controlled trials to find out if it will work in humans or not. Program is due to commence this Autumn, conducted across 4-6 Spanish hospitals.

Will involve between 30-40 glioma patients who will be administered cannabinoids in combination with other anticancer drugs.

Alongside the crowdfunding effort, which seeks to raise £60,000, volunteers are hoping to raise an additional £200,000 from a sponsored 420 kilometer bike ride, which ends on 14 June.