Australian Study Shows Cannabis Could Kill Cancer

A three year long study at the University of Newcastle in Australia has concluded that cannabis can kill or inhibit cancer cells. The results published last month by Dr Matt Dun show that a high CBD strain of cannabis named ‘Eve’ could wipe out cancer cells with zero impact on other cells in the body. “We initially used leukaemia cells and were really surprised by how sensitive they were. At the same time, the cannabis didn’t kill normal bone marrow cells, nor normal healthy neutrophils [white blood cells].” Dr Dun wrote. The strain was also successfully tested on paediatric brainstem glioma, a complex brain cancer affecting children. 

While cannabis advocates have long touted cannabis’ ability to ‘kill cancer’, it has only been deployed in a clinical setting to ease the effects of cancer and chemotherapy. This usage has generally been more focused on THC, whereas this study has found CBD to be more effective in actually wiping out the cancer cells.

Dr Dun explains how achieving these effects by using a CBD heavy formula provides a great advantage in the distribution and prescription rate of the potential medicine. He says that THC heavy medications have many barriers to entry compared to CBD because among other limitations “you can’t drive, and clinicians are justifiably reluctant to prescribe a child something that could cause hallucinations or other side-effects.” Dr Dun Believes that this medicine could help break the stigma around cannabis due to the lack of side effects that are stereotypically associated with the drug.

Referring to the cannabis strain ‘Eve’, which contains around 1% THC Dr Dun says “the CBD variety looks to have greater efficacy, low toxicity, and fewer side-effects, which potentially makes it an ideal complementary therapy to combine with other anti-cancer compounds.” Future research seeks to further understand why cancer cells are inhibited by cannabis whereas other cells stay unaffected, and how this could play a role in the treatment of cancer in general.

Looking into the relationship between cannabis and cancer more broadly, Dr Dun and his team recently completed a literature review of over 150 academic papers that investigated the possible anti-cancer benefits of cannabinoids in a paper  titled “Can Hemp Help?” - released by international journal ‘Cancers’. This review as well as the completion of their study has spurred them on to continue down this extremely valuable research path with great future potential.

N.B This research is being funded by biotech company Australian Natural Therapeutics who produce Eve.