The study, published May 9, 2019, noted that successful cancer chemotherapies interfere with the processes involved in cell division and kill off a greater proportion of cancer cells compared with healthy ones. The university’s research team tested the synergistic impact of CBD with a known cancer-cell-killing protein known as TRAIL (TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand).
TRAIL has attracted a great deal of interest among researchers in the hope of developing it as an effective cancer treatment because it can induce apoptosis in tumor cells without affecting or harming adjacent normal cells. In their experiments, the Korean scientists found that both TRAIL and CBD separately generated apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells, in test tubes and in mice. In addition, consistent with the researchers’ hypothesis, the combination of the two agents produced significantly improved results.
“These data indicate that the natural compound cannabidiol could be an effective TRAIL sensitizer, and the combination therapy of cannabidiol with TRAIL may be an effective treatment strategy against colorectal cancer,” the researchers wrote. “We conclude that the combination of cannabidiol and TRAIL is a significant potential therapy.”
This is no small breakthrough, the researchers noted.
CBD is itself of interest for cancer studies. Though research on CBD is in very early stages, scientists already have found that it seems to inhibit the growth of many different types of tumor cells in both test tubes and animals. Thus, adding cannabidiol to TRAIL was a natural line of inquiry.
