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Cannabis could be used in the fight against pancreatic cancer, scientists have found.

A team of researchers at the University of Harvard treated mice with compounds derived from the marijuana plant and found that tumours in 70% of the animals shrank before disappearing completely.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of the illness and only 7% of people diagnosed survive for more than five years.

It is one of the hardest forms of cancer to treat but the study has shown that flavonoids – the compound extracted from the marijuana plant and used in the study – could be the key to beating the illness.

Marijuana contains more than 200 bioactive compounds and flavonoids account for around 10% of those found in the plant.



But the scientists have found one type of flavonoid in particular, known as FBL-03G, which they believe could be the answer to beating pancreatic cancer.

The treatment also supercharged more traditional radiation therapy, giving the researchers hope that by 2020, the promising treatment could be ready for testing in humans.

Dr Wilfred Ngwa, co-author of the study, said: “People have done studies before showing that sometimes cannabis works against cancer, and sometimes it doesn’t”.

He puts those differences down to wildly varied cannabis strains in different parts of the country, and a lack of consistency in this sense from study to study.

“So maybe the plant we're investigating in Boston is very different from what we're investigating in California”.

Referring to the study, Dr Ngwa added: “We were very surprised with the results we got.

"We expected it to show some inhibition of tumor growth, but we were quite surprised that it [also] inhibited tumor progression in other parts of the body.

"We actually had to run some [additional] measurements to see if this was really true."

The researchers are unsure, however, if the disease in the mice could return, but as things stand they remain cancer-free.

Dr Ngwa went on to explain that he and his team are still working to establish exactly how the flavonoid treatment works but they remain “confident” that it contains anti-cancer elements.

The Harvard scientists have planned further tests in the future and called on the public to remain patient until the results come back