In the medical literature, they managed to find one other similar case, where a person with lung cancer also experienced tumour reduction after CBD oil. However, they also note that animal studies have been mixed, with some even suggesting that cannabinoids boost tumour growth. But as the team points out, there has been research looking at the effects of CBD and other cannabinoids on cancer itself, including some showing that they can directly affect the growth and development of tumours. In a round-up of comments collected by the Science Media Centre, Edzard Ernst, a retired professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter, noted that “case reports cannot be considered to be reliable evidence, and there are currently no data from rigorous clinical trials to suggest that cannabis products will alter the natural history of any cancer.”Ĭannabis is already sometimes used to reduce nausea and other symptoms that result from standard treatments like chemotherapy and radiation. Some outside experts in the UK are, for the moment, sceptical. “This case appears to demonstrate a possible benefit of ’CBD oil’ intake that may have resulted in the observed tumour regression,” the doctors wrote in their report on the case, published Thursday in BMJ Case Reports. Other than a reduced appetite, the woman reported no side effects from her regimen, and the doctors couldn’t find any other changes to her prescribed medications, diet, or lifestyle (she was advised to quit smoking but had continued to do so) during that time. In February 2019, after a year of shrinking, the doctors spoke to the woman about her results, and she revealed that she had been ingesting a CBD oil product on a the advice of a relative since June 2018, usually at three doses a day. Compared to the first imaging taken in June 2018, they estimated that the cancer’s size had shrunk 76% by February 2021. Remarkably, the woman’s cancer started shrinking without any intervention on the doctors’ part whatsoever. Because of that, the doctors agreed to simply keep an eye on her cancer’s growth through routinely scheduled imaging tests. But after lengthy discussions, the woman chose to decline options like surgery or radiation therapy. Though she was a smoker and had preexisting lung problems, doctors felt her case was treatable. By the summer, imaging tests and a biopsy clearly indicated that she had lung cancer, specifically non-small cell lung carcinoma.
The patient in this case had experienced a persistent cough for months by the time she visited a doctor in February 2018.
But cannabis and CBD oil are permitted to be sold and used in around much of the country, as well as in some other countries like the UK. In the U.S., only one medical use of CBD is currently approved, a high-dose version that’s meant to help relieve symptoms in people with certain seizure disorders. CBD oil and similar products are in a murky legal market in much of the world.
These products can also include delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the other major compound that’s responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis. The CBD in CBD oil comes from cannabidiol, one of the two major compounds found in cannabis.