cannabisnews.com: British Company To Test Cannabis for Cancer Pain





British Company To Test Cannabis for Cancer Pain
Posted by FoM on January 16, 2002 at 08:50:00 PT
By Stephen Cunningham
Source: Reuters
UK patients suffering from terminal cancer will soon get the chance to test cannabis-based medicines if a pioneering British pharmaceutical company gets its way.GW Pharmaceuticals, which has a government license to grow cannabis, said Wednesday it was expanding clinical trials to ease the pain of cancer patients. Trials involving patients with multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury had already proved successful, it said.
While cannabis use is illegal, many people in the UK suffering from serious diseases have been lobbying for its use for medicinal purposes.GW said more than 100 patients with terminal cancer who are suffering pain that is not responding to current therapy will take part in trials at more than 20 centers throughout the country. Patients will not actually smoke the drug, but instead will use an under-the-tongue spray.Executive Chairman Geoffrey Guy said this represented a key milestone for GW since ``cannabis-based medicine has the potential to provide considerable advantages over current medications to cancer patients.''Around 40% of cancer patients could benefit if the trials were successful, he added.Guy said GW was on course to become the first company in the world to win regulatory approval for prescription cannabis-based medicines.``We remain confident of being able to present data to the UK regulatory authorities in 2003, and--subject to approval--bring the first cannabis-based prescription medicine to market in early 2004,'' Guy said. Source: ReutersAuthor: Stephen CunninghamPublished: Wednesday, January 16, 2202Copyright: 2002 Reuters UnlimitedRelated Articles & Web Sites:UK Medicinal Cannabis Projecthttp://www.medicinal-cannabis.org/Cannabis & Pain Managementhttp://freedomtoexhale.com/drr.htmCannabinoids in Pain Management http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11430.shtmlCannabis a Medical Miracle - It's Official http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11254.shtmlCannabis - The Patient's Painkiller http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11164.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by Ethan Russo MD on January 16, 2002 at 10:49:08 PT:
GW Results to Date
Early results of the GW Pharmaceutical trials with cannabis-based medicine extracts (CBME) were presented in a series of presentations at the International Association of Cannabis as Medicine meeting in Berlin, October 2001 by Willy Notcutt in the form of 9 abstracts, that will be published in the Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics 2(2) in April. To summarize, patients with a variety of intractable pain conditions unresponsive to all conventional agents were examined in “N of 1” trials in which each subject served as his/her own control. All went through initial dose titration instruction, which was instrumental in providing successful symptom control and tolerability. 80% demonstrated good or excellent pain control. Some patients improved more in one area (analgesia), than others (sleep, increase in activities of daily living). The presence of CBD mitigated the side effect profile of THC. Therapeutic CBME use did not impair mental or motor function in a manner sufficient to impede safe usage. Benefits continued over the course of long-term trials without dose escalation.In the cancer patients in the planned trials, based on past experience, we can reasonable expect that they will live longer, maintain weight stability better, have fewer problems with nausea and vomiting, have fewer opiate side effects, and require lower doses. Among families whose loved ones do succumb, they will be grateful that the cannabis eased their passage.Continuation of cannabis prohibition is a crime.
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Comment #2 posted by schmeff on January 16, 2002 at 10:46:04 PT
a note on timing
Look for the aforementioned military training "accident", or staged "terrorist" attack to occur shortly before GW Pharmaceutical announces research indicating that cannabis medicines prevents cancer. 
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Comment #1 posted by schmeff on January 16, 2002 at 10:38:56 PT
The Genie could be out of the bottle...
The 'medical miracle' worked miracles for MS and spinal cord patients last summer. If GW Pharm. proves that whole extract cannabis effectively (not to mention safely and non-toxically) relieves the pain of 40% of cancer patients....Look for an errant Amerikan missle to take out the GW Pharmaceutical campus as desperate last ditch effort by Prohib-Imperialists to prop-up their empire.
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