In the future, medicines made from cannabis could help fight ovarian cancer. A research team studying two natural chemicals found in cannabis discovered that both had strong anti-cancer effects when tested on ovarian cancer cells in the lab.
While much more research is needed before any new drug can be offered to patients, these early results suggest a promising new direction for treating one of the deadliest forms of gynecological cancer.
Ovarian cancer is known for being hard to detect early and difficult to treat effectively. It often returns after treatment and current medications can have harsh side effects. Dr. Siyao Tong from Khon Kaen University, the lead author of the new study published in Frontiers in Pharmacology, said their goal was to find new drugs that work better and are less harmful.
Because new treatments are urgently needed, the team decided to study CBD (cannabidiol) and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), two well-known compounds from cannabis. CBD is non-psychoactive, meaning it doesn’t cause a “high,” while THC is the compound that does. Both have shown some ability to fight cancer in past research.
The scientists tested these compounds on two different types of ovarian cancer cells—one that responds to standard chemotherapy and one that does not. They also tested how the compounds affected healthy cells, to see if there were harmful side effects.
The results were encouraging. Cancer cells exposed to CBD or THC formed fewer and smaller colonies, meaning their growth was slowed down. The most powerful effect came when CBD and THC were used together, especially in equal amounts.
While neither compound alone killed many cancer cells, their combination did. This suggests that they may work in different ways that support each other when combined.
Even more promising, the combination also slowed down cancer cell movement. This is important because ovarian cancer often spreads to other parts of the body. A treatment that can stop or slow this spread could help save lives.
Both types of cancer cells reacted similarly to the treatment, which suggests that the compounds might work on many forms of ovarian cancer.
Even better, the healthy cells tested were mostly unharmed. This raises hope that future treatments based on cannabis could be easier on patients than current chemotherapy drugs, which often cause serious side effects.
To understand why the cannabis compounds were effective, the researchers looked at what was happening inside the cancer cells. They found that a major cancer-related cell signaling pathway called PI3K/AKT/mTOR was less active after treatment.
This pathway is often too active in ovarian cancer and is linked to tumor growth and drug resistance. Calming down this pathway may explain why the cells grew more slowly and died more easily.
While these lab results are exciting, the scientists made it clear that much more research is needed. The study was done using cancer cells in dishes, not in animals or humans.
The team did not study how the drugs move through the body or how they would behave in a living system. Also, because cannabis-related research can be affected by legal issues, it may take time before these findings lead to treatments.
Still, this early study lays the groundwork for future research. If further studies confirm these results, CBD and THC could become part of new treatment plans for ovarian cancer. These natural compounds might offer a safer and more effective way to fight a cancer that continues to be a major challenge in women’s health.
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The study is published in Frontiers in Pharmacology.
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