E-poster Presentation 2014 World Cancer Congress

Cannabinoid Botanicals in cancer Treatment (#1032)

Sukdev Nayak 1 , Sunil Aggarwal 2 , Justin Kander 3 , Pranati Nanda 4 , Swagata Tripathy 5 , Pushplata K 6 , Bhaskar P Rao 1 , Bilkish Zahir Begum 1 , Sumita Mohanty 7
  1. Anaesthesiology, Critical Care, Pain Relief & Palliation, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar 751019, ODISHA, India
  2. Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, NYU Langone Medical Centre, New York, USA
  3. College Park, Maryland, MD, USA
  4. Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar 751019, Odisha, India
  5. Trauma & Emergency, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar 751019, Odisha, India
  6. Gynaecology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar 751019, Odisha, India
  7. Anaesthesia, Pain Relief & Palliative Care, AH Regional Cancer Centre, Cuttack 753007, Odisha, India

Background:India has a rich heritage on traditional medicines (TM), also used in many other countries. Indian Ayurveda has vast resources of medicinal plants and huge repositories of knowledge. India fully supports the implementation of traditional medicine resolution and will help other countries to implement. The Delhi declaration on traditional medicine Feb, 2013 among the Health ministers of all the South Asian nations is widely adopted and supported. India made a strong intervention for benefit of TM at the World Health Assembly in May 2014.

Cannabis use for medicinal purposes dates back at least 3,000 years1-5.The earliest known reports regarding the sacred status of cannabis in India and Nepal come from the Atharva Veda estimated to have been written sometime around 2000–1400 BC6-7. There is ample evidence of its use in Hebrew Bible, China and Africa.8-9

 Though the South African National Cannabis Working Group prepared a very nice Position paper in 2013, it's a pity that very few human trials have been done in use of Cannabinoids in oncology. 

The 24th Annual 
International Cannabinoid
 Research Society Symposium at Lago Maggiore, Italy, starting on June 28, 2014 has variety of sessions demonstrating cannabis' usefulness. 

Aim: To collect anecdotal records about medical use of cannabinoid and lay foundation for more clinical trials.

Methods: 40 anecdotal records about cannabinoid use in various cancers were collected from different sources around the world.

Results:All the records involving cancers of Oral, Breast, Lung, Gliomas, Liver, Pancreas and Prostate had promising results.

Conclusions: Cannabinoids have  many beneficial effects.10-12

Urgent awareness is needed amongst oncologists to have more clinical trials in this area.13-14  This will pave the way for inclusion of this very useful phytochemical-rich whole plant botanical extract into the oncological pharmacy. More effective treatment and palliative support to the patient can be made available with much lesser cost.

  1. Abel EL: Marihuana, The First Twelve Thousand Years. New York: Plenum Press, 1980.
  2. Joy JE, Watson SJ, Benson JA, eds.: Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999
  3. Mack A, Joy J: Marijuana As Medicine? The Science Beyond the Controversy. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2001
  4. Booth M: Cannabis: A History. New York, NY: St Martin's Press, 2003.
  5. Russo EB, Jiang HE, Li X, et al.: Phytochemical and genetic analyses of ancient cannabis from Central Asia. J Exp Bot 59 (15): 4171-82, 2008.
  6. M. D. Merlin, (2003) Archaeological Evidence for the Tradition of Psychoactive Plant Use in the Old World Economic Botany-57 (3) p295-323
  7. Courtwright, David (2001). Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World. Harvard Univ. Press. p. 39. ISBN 0-674-00458-2
  8. Joseph Needham and Gwei-djen Lu (1974). Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology; Part 2, Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Magisteries of Gold and Immortality]. Cambridge University Press, p. 152
  9. Dunhill, Alfred | "The Pipe Book" | London | A & C Black, 1924
  10. Courtwright, David (2001). Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World. Harvard Univ. Press. p. 39. ISBN 0-674-00458-2.
  11. Ben Amar M: Cannabinoids in medicine: A review of their therapeutic potential. J Ethnopharmacol 105 (1-2): 1-25, 2006. [PubMed
  12. Tramèr MR, Carroll D, Campbell FA, et al.: Cannabinoids for control of chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting: quantitative systematic review. BMJ 323 (7303): 16-21, 2001. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
  13. Sallan SE, Zinberg NE, Frei E 3rd: Antiemetic effect of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in patients receiving cancer chemotherapy. N Engl J Med 293 (16): 795-7, 1975
  14. Adler JN, Colbert JA. Medicinal Use Marijuana - Polling Results. N Engl J Med 2013;368(22):e30
  15. Justine Kandar, The comprehensive report on Cannabis extract movement and the use of Cannabis extract to treat the disease, http://www.slideshare.net/TheHempSolution?utm_campaign=profiletracking&utm_medium=sssite&utm_source=ssslideview, accessed on 12th June, 2014