SILVER SPRING, Md., March 7, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nuvilex, Inc. (OTCQB:NVLX), an international biotechnology and clinical stage provider of natural products and cell and gene therapy solutions for the treatment of diseases, emphasized today that the cannabinoid-based treatments for cancer to be developed by its subsidiary, Medical Marijuana Sciences, Inc., may offer a "two-pronged" approach to treating the disease and its associated symptoms.
Cannabis has been used for thousands of years for medical purposes. It has been recognized for its pain-killing properties as well as its ability to alleviate nausea and vomiting and as a result, is presently in clinical trials for these indications. Over the past few years, cannabinoids found in Cannabis have been shown to relieve pain associated with cancer as well as the cachexia, or "wasting syndrome," experienced by patients with advanced cancer. Cachexia is characterized by loss of appetite, weight loss, muscle atrophy, weakness, and fatigue.
In contrast to cannabinoids, most cancer drugs and treatments in use today carry with them serious and even life-threatening side effects. A few examples are greatly depressed white blood cell, red blood cell, and platelet counts; these, in turn, can cause greatly increased susceptibility to opportunistic infections, anemia, and internal bleeding. Such side effects often require the use of other drugs to minimize their occurrence and damage. These deleterious side effects can limit the amounts of drugs that can be given to patients and, therefore, the degree to which the cancer drugs can "kill" the tumors where they were directed.
Therefore, there appears to be a marked difference in the deleterious side effects associated with commonly-used anticancer drugs and the "beneficial" side effects associated with cannabinoids. Medical Marijuana Sciences, Inc. plans to develop treatments for two of the most deadly forms of cancer, namely cancers of the brain and pancreas, that are based on cannabinoids. By doing so, the Company should be able to treat both the cancer itself, and potentially, the other deleterious symptoms (pain and cachexia, for example) associated with it.
Nuvilex's President and CEO, Dr. Robert Ryan stated, "The possibility that Medical Marijuana Sciences can develop treatments for the most serious cancers while simultaneously treating symptoms of those cancers is both intriguing and exciting. The ultimate outcome of this 'two-pronged' approach, if successful, will be extension of patients' lives while giving those patients improved quality of life as they battle their disease."
About Nuvilex
Nuvilex, Inc. (OTCQB:NVLX) has been a provider of all-natural products for many years. The company has been expanded to increase its natural product-based footprint through medical marijuana studies. We are an international biotechnology provider of live, therapeutically valuable, encapsulated cells and services for research and medicine. New developments by our company and subsidiaries will be substantial as we have been working on many fronts to move us forward. Our company's offerings will ultimately include cancer, diabetes and other treatments using the Company's natural product knowledge, product base, cell and gene therapy expertise, and live-cell encapsulation technology in addition to other new products currently under development.
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