Is cannabis a treatment for brain tumours?

This page has information about cannabis and brain tumours. There is information on

What cannabis is
Research into cannabis as a cancer treatment
Clinical trials
More information about brain tumours

You may also know cannabis as marijuana, pot, grass, weed, hemp, hashish or dope. Scientific names include Cannabis sativa and delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Cannabis is a plant that grows wild in many hotter regions of the world. People have used parts of the plant in herbal remedies for centuries.

In the past few years cannabis has been the subject of a lot of medical research. There were many media reports in August 2004 about very early stage research into the use of chemical cannabinoids to help treat a type of brain tumour called glioblastoma multiforme. Cannabinoids are the active ingredients in marijuana. Complutense University in Madrid and the University hospital of Tenerife jointly carried out the research. Their results were published in the medical journal Cancer Research on August 15th 2004.

The research found that cannabinoids interfere with the activity of genes needed to produce a chemical called VEGF. VEGF stands for Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor. It helps to make new cells grow.

VEGF is one of the most important chemicals controlling blood vessel growth. Doctors call the growth of new blood vessels angiogenesis. As they get bigger, cancers need to grow their own blood vessels. Without its own blood supply to bring food and take away waste from cells, a cancer can’t grow bigger than a pea. If doctors could block VEGF, this could limit the growth of blood vessels supplying tumours and so they won’t be able to grow. This is called anti VEGF treatment.

The researchers first tested cannabinoids in the laboratory, with some promising results. They then looked at the effects of injecting cannabinoids into the brain tumours of two people with advanced glioblastoma multiforme. The researchers at the University hospital of Tenerife then used injections of cannabinoids into the tumours of 9 patients. The substance seemed to slow the growth of the tumours but more research is needed before we know whether cannabinoids may really be helpful in treating brain tumours.

As far as we know, there are no trials investigating cannabis for brain tumours at the moment. Further trials may take place. There are a few trials looking at cannabis for controlling symptoms and side effects, mostly for pain control. There are already several other anti VEGF inhibitors in clinical development for several types of cancers.

There is information about clinical trials elsewhere on this website. If you are looking for trials that are open and recruiting patients in the UK, go to our clinical trials database. Pick your type of cancer from the drop down menu of cancer types.