(NaturalSociety) Two Ontario-based doctors recently published in Case Reports in Oncology on the potentially promising treatment results of a 14-year old girl diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer—acute lymphoblastic leukemia with a Philadelphia chromosome mutation. While the patient ultimately died, the researchers indicate it was the conventional chemotherapy that ultimately broke down her body’s defenses.
As Collective Evolution reports, she underwent acute and aggressive chemotherapy treatments as well as bone marrow transplants in an effort to fight the disease. None of those conventional methods proved effective after 34 months. That’s when the girl’s family sought alternative options.
Cannabis oil, also known as hemp oil, is showing great promise in treating a variety of conditions as of late. It’s gained particular notoriety in the form of cannabidiol oil or CBD, used successfully in children with debilitating seizure disorders.
For this patient, doctors Yadvinder Singh, MD and Chamandeep Bali, ND say, the family began administering oral cannabinoid extracts (of the “Chronic Strain”) with promising results, saying it revealed a “rapid dose-dependent correlation.”
Initially, as the treatment began, she did experience some negative side effects including slight panic, nausea, increased appetite, and fatigue. But as time went on and tolerance was built, these lessened.
Her blast cell counts declined as the CBD oil dosages increased.
“The blast cell count reached a peak of 374,000 on the 25th February 2009 (day 5), followed by a decrease, which correlated with the increasing dose. The daily dosing is the amount administered per dose; the doses were initially given once per day up to a total of 3 times per day by day 15, and were continued with the same average frequency throughout the treatment. A decreased use of morphine for pain, an increase in euphoria symptoms, a disoriented memory and an increase in alertness were observed; these are typical with cannabinoid use.”
At one point, the family tried a different strain and had dramatically different results, with blast cell counts rising again and side-effects worsening. This is not unusual as cannabis strains can vary widely in their CBD concentrations. They followed this set-back with another strain-change.
Over a total treatment period of 78 days, improvement was measured.
“The results shown here cannot be attributed to the phenomenon of ‘spontaneous remission’ because a dose response curve was achieved. Three factors, namely frequency of dosing, amount given (therapeutic dosing) and the potency of the cannabis strains, were critical in determining response and disease control.”
The doctors say their goal in sharing the data from this singular case study is to encourage further research on the effects of cannabis oil in various cancer types.
“An emphasis needs to be placed on determining the correct cannabinoid ratios for different types of cancer, the best method of administration, quality control and standardization of the cannabis strains and their growing conditions as well as therapeutic dosing ranges for various cancers contingent on staging and ages.”
All of this begins with greater access to testing for scientists and ultimately greater access to CBD for patients across the country.
I do not understand the meaning of it leaves things much
She died. What are you getting at?
I read the whole case study…..she went into remission because of the cannabis oil after the chemo didn’t work, then she died soon after because of organ damage and infection caused by the chemo. Go away, UNrealitycheck.
Dr David Gorski states this: ”It is claimed in this case report that there was a strong correlation between increasing dose of the oil and decreases in PK’s blast count (a measure of leukemia cells in the blood), but looking at Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, I have a hard time seeing it. Figure 1 shows increasing doses of hemp oil from what was called the “chronic” strain. That’s the closest we see to decreasing blast counts correlating with hemp oil dose. By day 15, the chronic strain was gone, and PK started taking Hemp Oil #2 from an outside source. In actuality in Figure 2, we see the blast count increasing with increasing dose until day 27, when it starts falling. Figure #3 shows Hemp Oil #3 (Afghan/Thai strain) from days 44 to 49. Given that the blast count stayed the same one can’t say much about this. Then Hemp Oil #4 was tried from day 50 to day 67, and her blast counts started rising. Finally, Hemp Oil #5 was tried and PK’s blast count fell between days 69 and 78. During that time, PK suffered the psychotropic effects of the hemp oil, including euphoria, disoriented memory, and the like.
Unfortunately, PK developed gastrointestinal bleeding and bowel perforation with peritonitis on day 78 and passed away. So, basically, she lived two and a half months after being placed on hospice. The authors assert that a dose-response curve was achieved, but to my eye I really don’t see it, except perhaps at the beginning, nor do I really buy the claim that the bumps in blast counts correlate with using “lower potency” strains. They also assert because PK was treated for tumour lysis syndrome (a syndrome in which the waste products of tumour breakdown, often seen after intense chemotherapy in hematopoietic malignancies, injure organs such as the kidneys), it must mean that the oil was effective.
Unfortunately, even if a mild dose-response effect was observed that would not rule out spontaneous remission. Spontaneous remission is known to occur in ALL, although it is usually temporary, and spontaneous tumour lysis syndrome has been reported, although it is rare. In any case, one has to wonder whether the patient’s bone marrow was petering out near the end, something that is hard to determine because almost no laboratory values other than blast counts are presented, except at the end, when she had a very low platelet count (8K; normal 150K to 450K), a low white blood cell count (1.4, normal 4.5-13.0), and severe anemia (hemoglobin 8.2; normal: 13 to 16). It wasn’t established how the diagnosis of tumor lysis syndrome was made other than that the patient had elevated urate levels. Indeed, the entire case report seemed to have been written with the belief that it was the hemp oil that accounted for the decrease in blasts. A lot of information has been left out about the patient’s clinical course. All we know is that, after being placed in hospice, she was fortunate to have her blast count fall, developed a central line infection, and was treated for tumor lysis syndrome. We can also infer that she was still having considerable issues with her gut because she was on total parenteral nutrition (being fed by vein) and had trouble when they started to try to feed her orally again.
It should also be remembered that, whether or not oil was responsible for the decline in blasts (which is possible but not convincingly demonstrated by this case study) or whether it was “burnout” of the bone marrow in the terminal phase of the disease or even spontaneous remission, the patient still died. She still developed GI bleeding and a GI perforation with peritonitis and died of it only 78 days after going on hospice. There’s no way of knowing whether hemp oil prolonged her life. Probably it did not, as a two to three month survival after going into hospice after being declared terminal for leukemia is well within what is expected. In other words, this case report is mighty thin gruel indeed.
Of course, the sad story of PK and the treatment of her terminal relapsed ALL with hemp oil is probably the highest quality cancer cure testimonial out there, and unfortunately its quality is not that high at all.”