The Hirshberg Foundation is happy to announce Ziva Cooper, MD will be joining us at the 19th Annual Symposium on Pancreatic Cancer to share up-to-date information on cannabis for oncology patients and what pancreatic cancer patients should know.
With sweeping changes related to cannabis legalization both for medical and personal use occurring across the United States, cannabis has become more accessible than ever. Cannabis formulations specifically for medical use have proliferated dispensaries in California offering patients non-traditional options that may potentially help ease symptoms associated with cancer treatment and the disease itself. The wide array of cannabis options can be dizzying leaving the consumer to wonder: How do the products differ? Which ones are ‘safe’? Which may help with specific ailments? Audience members will come away with the background to understand the cannabis plant and its chemical constituents (i.e., THC and CBD), the known effects of different types of cannabis products, and important safety information.
Ziva Cooper, Ph.D. is the Director of the UCLA Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoids in the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and Professor in the UCLA Departments of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Anesthesiology. Her research involves understanding variables that influence both the therapeutic potential and adverse effects of cannabis and cannabinoids, the chemicals in the cannabis plant. Ziva served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on the Health Effects of Cannabis that published a comprehensive report of the health effects of cannabis and cannabinoids in 2017. She is also serving on the current NASEM Committee on the public health consequences of changes in the cannabis policy landscape. Her current projects funded by the NIH and California State include understanding the potential for cannabis constituents to reduce reliance on opioids, differences between men and women in their response to the pain-relieving effects of cannabis, effects of cannabis as a function of age, and therapeutic effects of cannabinoids in patient populations. She is the immediate past President of the International Cannabinoid Research Society, a past Board Director for the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, an Associate Editor of Neuropsychopharmacology and is on several Editorial Boards of journals including Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.
An important update for our pancreatic cancer community, we are so happy to have Dr. Coooper present Cannabis and Oncology: What Pancreatic Cancer Patients Should Know at the 19th Annual Symposium.
