A British biotech company is hoping to harness an infamous side-effect of cannabis use, commonly known as ” the munchies”, to help improve the lives of cancer patients. Use of the drug has long been associated with an increase in appetite. Pharmaceutical firm Artelo has been working on a drug which it says imitates the effect of the cannabis plant but only on the body and not the brain, so patients will not get high.
It comes as scientists at the University of Oxford are developing a vaccine which it is hoped could start to wipe out Ovarian cancer within five years. OvarianVax teaches the immune system to recognise and attack the earliest stages of ovarian cancer and researchers believe it could be given to women preventatively on the NHS. What is the drug? The drug, currently referred to as ART27.
13 was originally developed by AstraZenecca, Researchers at pharmaceutical firm Artelo Biosciences and Trinity College Dublin have been experimenting with evolving it for use on cancer patients. In a paper published in the journal Pharmaceuticals last November, they said it had provided a breakthrough in cancer cachexia, which is a change in the body causing people to lose weight despite eating normally. Depending on the type of cancer, between 60 per cent and 80 per cent of patients lose weight.
Read Next When finding some cancers early isn't a good thing And they believe it could protect against the muscle degeneration associated with colon and lung cancers (cachexia) and may .