CBD Use Found to Be Safe Among Patients with Breast Cancer, Prompts Further Study

CBD consumption was safe and prompted further research in breast cancer.

Administration of cannabidiol (CBD) was safe and associated with what researchers described as intriguing results regarding scan-related anxiety among women with advanced breast cancer, experts explained in an exclusive interview with CURE®.

Researchers, who published their findings in JAMA Network Open, found that while a single 400-milligram dose of Epidiolex, an FDA-approved CBD oil, did not result in a statistically significant reduction in anxiety levels when compared with placebo, their results have prompted further study.

“The biggest takeaway from these findings is that more research needs to be done in this area,” Dr. Ilana M. Braun explained in the interview. “Our trial was negative, but CBD at a 400-milligram dose appeared to be safely consumed by women with advanced breast cancer. There were some intriguing findings to suggest that we should dig deeper to understand what could be an effective management strategy for anxiety in the cancer setting.”

Dr. Braun is a senior physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute located in Boston, Massachusetts.

Manan M. Nayak, a research scientist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, explained that, “There were drops in anxiety among the women in the CBD group [so although] our primary end point, which was our change score, didn't work, we really still wanted to understand what happened to those women just after they were dosed. We found that there were women [who] were much calmer in the CBD group.”

In a phase 2 trial performed at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Breast Oncology Center between Nov. 2, 2021, and March 1, 2023, 50 patients with advanced breast cancer and baseline clinical anxiety were assigned to receive either CBD or placebo a day or two prior to an upcoming scan, with their levels of anxiety measured using the Visual Analog Mood Scale, or VAMS. Patients were dosed with CBD or placebo and then re-tested approximately three hours later. No grade 3 (severe) or 4 (life-threatening) adverse effects were reported, according to the study findings.

“In this study, women who received a placebo without CBD demonstrated a considerable drop in anxiety — we can call this a placebo effect,” Braun said. “And then, the women who received the CBD also demonstrated a considerable drop in anxiety — in fact, more so than those who received placebo, but not enough for statistical significance to be reached. Statistical significance is what allows researchers to have confidence that the observed differences between the two groups are not simply due to chance.

“What was most intriguing to us as researchers, though, was that about three hours after the study drug was consumed, women who had received CBD were significantly calmer than those who received placebo. This was a small study, and we're really excited to take on an expanded version of the study with many more participants to be able to more accurately assess whether CBD is indeed superior to placebo and improving anxiety in the cancer setting.”

Scan-related anxiety, as Nayak explained, is a factor that affects patients with many different cancer types, including breast cancer.

“Often folks, as they're anticipating or getting a scan, get anxious in the anticipation of what the results are going to be, so there's this word that is often seen in literature called ‘scanxiety,’” she said. “That's been consistently found across many different cancer types, and within the breast cancer population we do see that it is a much higher rate of scan-related anxiety that people often experience. Anxiety is kind of hard to measure sometimes.

“[For this reason], we wanted to pick a point where we know that people are going to be more anxious. We thought if they're thinking about or are scheduled to have a scan, it made more sense to be able to say, 'OK, this is a time when we know the anxiety is going to increase. Can we somehow intervene and study this particular piece?'”

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Reference

“Cannabidiol for Scan-Related Anxiety in Women With Advanced Breast Cancer: A Randomized Clinical Trial” by Dr. Manan M. Nayak et al., JAMA Network Open.