cannabisnews.com: Cannabis Medicine Trial Expanded





Cannabis Medicine Trial Expanded
Posted by FoM on January 16, 2002 at 09:39:54 PT
Cannabis has been shown to help ease pain
Source: BBC News
Cannabis-based medicines are to be used in clinical trials to treat people with cancer pain. It is part of an ongoing project by a UK pharmaceuticals company to test the effectiveness of cannabis in treating different conditions, including multiple sclerosis. More than 100 people with terminal cancer will take part in the Phase Three trials at more than 20 UK centres, GW Pharmaceuticals said. 
The expansion of the trial programme follows an announcement last October by the Home Secretary that cannabis may be legalised for medicinal use. Cancer pain is a target market for GW Pharmaceuticals' programme of developing medicines derived from cannabis. GW Pharmaceuticals executive chairman Dr Geoffrey Guy said: "This is a significant milestone for GW, and, we hope, for sufferers from cancer pain. "Cannabis-based medicine has the potential to provide considerable advantages over current medications to cancer patients.  Promising Results  "The potential market is very significant since approximately 40% of cancer sufferers at present have unmet needs in pain suppression." The cannabis-based medicine will be administered by means of a sublingual - under-the-tongue - spray. The Cancer Research Campaign (CRC) believes the trial is worthwhile. The CRC's head of trials Kate Law said: "We've known for some time that cannabis type compounds help some people with intractable nausea and vomiting brought on by chemotherapy. "This is the first that I've heard of it being tried in people with intractable cancer pain. "The results, if positive, could make a big difference to many cancer patients." GW Pharmaceuticals has also begun a new trial involving patients with brachial plexus injury, a severe form of nerve-damage pain which often results from motorcycle accidents. Phase Three trials are the final stage in preparing for a medicinal product to be approved by the Medicines Control Agency. Preliminary results from Phase Two MS and spinal cord injury trials have shown significant improvements in a range of symptoms. David Blunkett said that if current clinical trials were successful the law would be changed to allow the use of cannabis-based prescription drugs. Cannabis-based medicine has the potential to provide considerable advantages over current medications. - Dr Geoffrey Guy, GW Pharmaceuticals Source: BBC News (UK Web)Published: Wednesday, January 16, 2002Copyright: 2002 BBC Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/ Contact: http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking_point/Related Articles & Web Sites:UK Medicinal Cannabis Projecthttp://www.medicinal-cannabis.org/Cannabis & Pain Managementhttp://freedomtoexhale.com/drr.htmBritish Company To Test Cannabis for Cancer Painhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11774.shtmlCannabinoids in Pain Management http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11430.shtmlCannabis a Medical Miracle - It's Official http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11254.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo MD on January 16, 2002 at 10:49:58 PT:
Repeating GW Results
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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