Cancer Is Relentless. But So Are We: World Cancer Day - 4th February

If you weren’t already aware today - February 4^th - is World Cancer Day. World Cancer Day is a powerful opportunity to speak out, to call for action, to listen to cancer patients and their families, and to give them a voice. 

According to Cancer Research, a staggering 1 in 2 people in the UK born after 1960 will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lifetime. Females have the highest lifetime risk of breast, lung and bowel cancers. Males have the highest lifetime risk of prostate, lung and bowel cancers. So, if ever there was a day to get behind and pay attention to, World Cancer Day could be the one.

World Cancer Day was born on the 4 February 2000 at the World Summit Against Cancer for the New Millennium in Paris. The Paris Charter aims to promote research, prevent cancer, improve patient services, raise awareness and mobilise the global community to make progress against cancer, and includes the adoption of World Cancer Day.

The theme for this year’s World Cancer Day is: Close The Care Gap. The first year of the ‘Close the Care Gap’ campaign is all about understanding and recognising the inequities in cancer care around the globe. It’s about having an open mind, challenging assumptions and looking at the hard facts:

• Inequity in cancer care costs lives.

• People who seek cancer care hit barriers at every turn.

• Income, education, location and discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability and lifestyle are just a few of the factors that can negatively affect care.

• The gap affects everyone, including you and your loved ones.

• These barriers are not set-in stone. They can be changed.

According to WorldCancerDay.Org this is the year to question the status quo and help reduce stigma; to listen to the perspectives of the people living with cancer and their communities and let those lived experiences guide our thoughts and actions. 

They believe that this is how we can begin to imagine a better way of doing things and to build a fairer vision of the future—a future where people live healthier lives and have better access to health and cancer services, no matter where they are born, grow, age, work or live.

We are huge believers that CBD can be taken to help people with cancer as a complementary therapy in managing their symptoms and side effects from standard cancer treatment. Many studies in recent years have shown a potential to improve cancer chemotherapy-related symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite, as well as for cancer-related pain, anxiety or sleep problems.

Several pre-clinical laboratory studies have suggested that cannabinoids THC and CBD may reduce brain tumour cell growth and could disrupt the blood supply to tumours – but to date, clinical evidence that they could treat brain tumours has been limited.

According to the University of Leeds, a major UK trial of cannabis-based drug Sativex (an oral spray containing cannabinoids THC and CBD) in treating glioblastoma (the most aggressive form of brain tumour) has launched at 15 NHS hospitals, following promising results from a phase I study in 27 patients. The trial began after after a £400,000 crowdfunding campaign, bolstered by a £45,000 donation from Leeds Hospitals Charity.

Experts hope that, should the trial prove successful, Sativex could represent one of the first additions to NHS treatment for glioblastoma patients since temozolomide chemotherapy in 2007.

Professor Susan Short is the principal investigator on the new trial and Professor of Clinical Oncology and Neuro-Oncology at Leeds. She said: “Having recently shown that a specific cannabinoid combination given by oral spray could be safely added to temozolomide chemotherapy, we’re really excited to build on these findings to assess whether this drug could help glioblastoma patients live longer in a major randomised trial.”

Needless to say, everyone here at Eresos is fully behind World Cancer Day and everything it stands for. We highly recommend signing up here to take action on World Cancer Day.

Get involved any way you can. And spread the word. Because together, we can create change: https://www.worldcancerday.org/take-action