Childhood Cancer

BY BRIAN HOUCK

A topic like cannabis usually pairs well with something benign like food. Not everyone smokes but everyone has to eat, especially cannabis users. Conversations become inflammatory when the controversial topic of cannabis is combined with something deeply saddening like childhood cancer. When we ask questions like “should we give children medicinal cannabis to help ease side effects of chemotherapy?” or “can we use cannabis alone to cure our children’s cancer” debates begins to rage.

An extreme case unfolded in St. Petersburg, Florida this year when the parents of a leukemia-stricken 3-year-old boy pulled the child out of chemotherapy after 10 days because his test results showed no sign of cancer cells. They were allowed to leave the hospital and went to Kentucky to get a second opinion on natural treatment options. The parents wanted to see if they could treat their son through medical marijuana, diet, and vitamins, instead of more rounds of chemicals.

Legal action was taken against the child’s parents after they went to Kentucky. The Judge finally ruled that the child was to resume chemotherapy immediately, but could also explore other methods of treatment, including medical marijuana, that received doctor’s approval.

The controversial case has spread across the country and started a conversation about cannabis being used to fight cancer in children and the parents’ right to choose treatment.

Traditionally, medical cannabis is used during cancer treatment to help ease the side-effects associated with chemotherapy. Cannabis can help with nausea, pain, and loss of appetite that comes when the chemotherapy is working on the body. For adults with cancer, medical cannabis has become almost commonplace when recommended with cancer treatment, but it is still controversial when we talk about it being given to children.

Cannabis has been given to children to treat the side effects of chemotherapy for years now, but the growing conversation, parallel to the parents’ right to choose the method of treatment, is can cannabis be seen as an equal to conventional cancer treatments? Can it be used as compliment to conventional treatments to fight cancer? Should it strictly be used to relieve the side effects of conventional treatment?

Mothers are seeing the benefits in their children who are using medical cannabis as well. So much so that some have started advocacy groups like the nationwide 501(c)(3) non-profit Cannamoms. On their website, Cannamoms.com, it states that they are “dedicated to raising awareness of and access to alternative and supplemental health care options for critically or chronically ill, medically complex, and special needs children.”

This group of mothers saw cannabis have such positive effects on their children that they banded together in 2014 to, “fight diligently for common sense legislation, for rights and options for every parent in the care of their own children, and to provide other parents and their babies with hope, help, resources, and community.”

Even with the vast support system that medicinal cannabis has, it can be difficult for doctors to recommend anything to a patient that they feel hasn't gone through sufficient study. While doctors may know the benefits thatthese children can see, they don't know every long-term risk that a child may face associated with medical cannabis treatment. This is in large part due to the DEA scheduling of cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug, a drug that has no current medically accepted value. Drugs with this classification are very hard to study as they are illegal and need clearance from the DEA for each study. The climate is beginning to shift as more studies are allowed to be conducted and researchers are discovering more medical applications and are able to track long-term effects of cannabis use, especially in the developing brain.

The endocannabinoid system is all across the body. When cannabis is consumed, it can have multiple benefits for the patient. The cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 are all over the body spanning from the brain and lungs, down to the liver, and all the way down to our skin and bones. So when cannabis is consumed and circulates through the bloodstream, it is absorbed in all the organs, so it can be beneficial in multiple medical applications.

Researchers conducted a study that was published in The Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics (1), that examined a common childhood cancer, neuroblastoma, which affects the pancreas. In vitro studies showed, “that both CBD and THC reduced the viability of NBL cells in a dose- and timedependent manner.” This means that the cannabinoids made it harder for the cancer cells to survive once introduced, and that their success was dependent on the dose given and the time allowed for research.

They used mice for in vivo research, or research done inside of a living organism, in which they gave them daily injections of THC, CBD, or ethanol, into the thin lining of the abdomen, or gave them no treatment at all. These in vivo studies revealed that, “tumor growth in both the THC and CBD groups was significantly reduced.” 1

A study published in the British Journal of Pharmacology found that there is some evidence that, “cannabis-based medicines may be effective in treating the more difficult to control symptoms of nausea and delayed nausea and vomiting in children.” 2

In this study, conducted by Shaare Zedek Hospital’s Pediatrics Department in Jerusalem, Israel, they gave children with cancer a less psychoactive form on medical cannabis during their chemotherapy treatment. “Two hoursbefore the start of each cancer treatment and every six hours thereafter for 24 h, the children were given Δ8-THC as oil drops on the tongue or in a bite of food.” 2

When their research concluded a total of 480 treatments had been administered. “the only side effects reported were slight irritability in two of the youngest children (3.5 and 4 years old)” 2 In the rest of the children, no side effects were reported, and and nausea and vomiting were controlled.

It is extremely hard to see a child suffer the side effects of chemotherapy. A child might lose their hair or fingernails. Some suffer from insomnia. Some suffer from a lack of appetite and nausea and vomiting. Some have pain so severe that they feel their bones aching. The good news is that cannabis is a plant that is so complex and the branches of its tree of benefits stretch so far reaching that if can bring relief to many of these traumatic symptoms.

As more studies are allowed to be conducted, we will know with more certainty the risks and full scope of benefits that children with cancer can receive from medical cannabis. We know that children with cancer can have their quality of life improved by using cannabis to ease effects of chemotherapy, but with more testing, we may also see cannabis recommended in lieu of chemotherapy, and and parents would have the right to choose.

References: 1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3165951/ 2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7776837 3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5473390/