According to the company Cannabotech, mushrooms may be able to supplement cancer treatment and reduce the amount of chemotherapy a patient needs. They are not psychoactive “magic mushrooms,” but medical mushrooms long used in Asia to boost the immune system. File photo. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Cannabotech’s idea is not to replace existing cancer treatments but to enable a patient to have fewer treatments.
Can cannabis cure breast cancer? Unfortunately, not yet. But according to the Herzliya-based startup Cannabotech, when paired with medical mushrooms, cannabis may one day be able to reduce the amount of chemotherapy patients need to take.
“We know that patients need a minimum amount of chemo, but a lot of people can’t survive this because of side effects, so they stop the treatment,” explains Elchanan Shaked, CEO of Cannabotech.
Taking a Cannabotech supplement could shift the balance, according to the company.
Cannabotech’s treatment, which has been studied so far in cell models, not only may reduce the amount of chemotherapy needed, but it also seems to be up to six times more effective in killing cancer cells when used alongside standard chemotherapy—rregardless of the dosage—ccompared to existing treatment, Shaked asserts.
In the lab, it increased the mortality of cancer cells from 10 to 60 percent.
Cannabotech is targeting five cancers to start. In addition to breast cancer, the company is studying how its treatment will work with pancreatic, colon, lung, and prostate cancer.
The breast cancer product, CannaboBreast, is the farthest along. It was tested on several different kinds of breast cancer, and different treatments were made for each kind.
Cannabotech’s early—bbut potentially groundbreaking—sstudy was conducted under the guidance of Prof. Tami Peretz, senior oncologist at Hadassah Medical Center and former director of the Center for Malignant Breast Diseases at the hospital, and Dr. Isaac Angel, an Israeli pharmacologist specializing in drug development.
In conjunction with chemo
Cancer patients already get medical cannabis to help with pain and sickness. In Israel, 120,000 people have a license to use medical cannabis.
But the dosage can be tricky: Too much THC, the plant’s psychoactive component, can leave patients flying high and nonfunctional for much of the day.
“Most solutions for pain have 20 percent to 25 percent THC,” Shaked says. “We deliver less than 2 percent.” The Cannabotech formulation also includes specific terpenes, an often-overlooked chemical component of the cannabis plant.
About half of breast cancer patients receive an integrative treatment in addition to chemo—mmainly herbal products, including cannabis.
“Cannabis is being used to treat a large number of active cancer patients in addition to traditional treatments,” says Peretz.
“The integrative products developed by Cannabotech are unique in that they are developed to standards similar to those of the pharmaceutical industry and combine several active agents.” The company’s products have demonstrated impressive and very promising activity in laboratory-tested cell cultures. “Based on these experiments, there is room to start exploring the possibility of integrating the products in the treatment of breast cancer patients as well.”
Angel adds that he was encouraged by the results and that the team “will continue to work to provide a cure for patients.”
Mushrooms in the mix
Despite the cannabis-infused corporate name, Cannabotech is bullish on the role of medical mushrooms.
These are not psychoactive “magic mushrooms.” Rather, these are medical mushrooms long used in Asia to boost the immune system.
Shaked was on business in Nepal in 2015 when he learned about the power of mushrooms.
“A local entrepreneur was collecting mushrooms from the locals and selling them to the Indian alternative pharmaceutical industry,” Shaked tells ISRAEL21c. “He wanted to examine the effectiveness of those mushrooms.”
Shaked was intrigued. Back home in Israel, he hooked up with Prof. Solomon Wasser, head of the International Center for Biotechnology and Biodiversity of Fungi at the Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa, and Prof. Fuad Fares, founder and director of the molecular genetics unit at Carmel Medical Center and an associate professor of human biology at the University of Haifa. Wasser had already patented 16 complexes of medicinal mushrooms.
Shaked’s own professional background fit the alternative approach that mushrooms presented; he came to Cannabotech after serving as CEO of Perrigo Pharmaceuticals Group, which specializes in over-the-counter medicines and wellness products.
Personalized medicine
Not all cancer treatment is the same. That’s why Cannabotech is developing a personalization kit due to be released in mid-2022.
A patient’s specific case, as well as genetic and metabolic tests, would be analyzed to determine which of Cannabotech’s 11 formulations would fit the prescribed chemotherapy regimen based on the patient’s cancer subtype.
The personalization kit, to be sold directly to physicians, is being developed in conjunction with Canformaticsa San Francisco-based cannabis evaluation firm. The company is headed by an expat Israeli, Dr. Itzhak Kurek.
In Israel, Cannabotech gets its plants from Medocann, a leading indoor cannabis farm.
Cannabotech’s cancer treatment will not need FDA or CE approval if a state or country has already legalized cannabis for consumer use. And mushrooms—wwell, they’re just fungi, a food product with nothing to regulate.
