United Kingdom Studies CBD in Treating Children’s Brain Tumors

The United Kingdom Leads Research of CBD in Treating Children’s Brain Tumors

With the widespread press on families in the United States who have successfully used CBD as a successful treatment of a variety of medical conditions in their children, such as epilepsy (and other seizure disorders), autism and ADHD the UK is launching a research study to determine if CBD can help in the reduction of children’s brain tumors.

CBD is the non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis and is also called cannabidiol. THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the chemical compound in cannabis responsible for a euphoric high. This study is researching cannabidiol (CBD) and doesn’t make the children high at all.

The United Kingdom is taking the success a step further by developing a new research study in what is the first of its kind. Researchers will be studying the effects of medical cannabis on children with brain tumors.

Professor Richard Grundy of Nottingham University is the lead in the study and his observation shows that in the past six months there has been a significant increase in parents inquiring about medical marijuana as a treatment for their children suffering from a variety of ailments, including brain tumors. Previous research has shown that cannabis can shrink cancer tumors. His hope is that the groundbreaking research could help those children suffering from brain tumors.

“New ways to treat childhood brain tumors are urgently needed to extend and improve the quality of life in malignant brain tumor patients, so we are excited at the prospect of testing the effect of cannabidiol on brain tumor cells,” Grundy said.

Researchers will conduct tests on cells taken from brain tumors, and they will closely watch how the cells divide or die off to determine the effectiveness of CBD in reducing the size of the tumors.

“We expect the cells—brain tumor and normal brain—grown in our standard conditions to be healthy and actively dividing,” Grundy stated. “We expect that normal brain cells grown in cannabidiol will remain healthy. However, we expect the brain tumor cells grown in cannabidiol to stop growing and die.”

William Frost

William Frost was diagnosed with an ependymoma brain tumor in 2014 – and after surgery and chemotherapy, parents Steve and Hilary were told last year that he was dying.

William’s parents, Steve and Hillary, exhausted all other options for treatment and were desperate to find a life saving solution for William. After learning about new research on CBD treatments by experts at Nottingham’s Children’s Brain Tumor Research Center, they decided to see if William could participate in the research.

‘We couldn’t bear to accept there were no more options for William” Steve said.

‘We were desperate and willing to try anything – when we read the research on cannabis and tumors it gave us hope.

A private clinic prescribed cannabidiol (CBD) – a cannabis product which does not contain tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical which produces the ‘high’.

A few months later, William’tumorur has shrunk by two-thirds, and William was able to return to school.

According to The Guardian, an estimated 1,750 children (under the age of 18) are diagnosed with cancer annually, and 400 of those individuals suffer from cancer in their brain or spinal cord.