MEDICINAL cannabis could treble the life expectancy of people with pancreatic cancer, a study suggests.

Diseased mice given cannabidiol with their chemotherapy lived three times longer than those given chemo alone.

2 Campaigners are calling for cannabis to be made available as a medicinal product in the UK as studies have shown its benefits Credit: EPA

Cannabidiol is already licenced for use in clinics, meaning researchers can move to human trials immediately. Around 9,900 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the UK each year, and 9,300 die from the disease.

It is particularly aggressive and has one of the lowest survival rates, with just 1 per cent living more than ten years. Study leader Prof Marco Falasca, from Queen Mary University of London, said: “This is a remarkable result.

“We found that mice with pancreatic cancer survived nearly three times longer if a constituent of medicinal cannabis was added to their chemotherapy treatment. Cannabidiol is already approved for use in clinics, which means we can quickly go on to test this in human clinical trials.

“If we can reproduce these effects in humans, cannabidiol could be in use in cancer clinics almost immediately, compared to having to wait for authorities to approve a new drug.

2 Patients with pancreatic cancer could benefit from medicinal cannabis prescribed alongside their chemotherapy treatment Credit: Alamy

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“The life expectancy for pancreatic cancer patients has barely changed in the last 40 years because there are very few, and mostly only palliative care, treatments available.

“Given the five-year survival rate for people with pancreatic cancer is less than seven per cent, the discovery of new treatments and therapeutic strategies is urgently needed.”

Cannabidiol does not cause psychoactive effects, unlike tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is also found in cannabis.

It is already known to improve the side effects of chemotherapy, including nausea, diarrhoea, and vomiting. This means it could potentially improve the quality of patients’ lives, as well as extend them. The findings are published in the journal Oncogene.

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