Posted on 12/28/2007 8:47:30 AM PST by Sir Gawain
Dec. 26, 2007 -- THC and another marijuana-derived compound slow the spread of cervical and lung cancers, test-tube studies suggest.
The new findings add to the fast-growing number of animal and cell-culture studies showing different anticancer effects for cannabinoids, chemical compounds derived from marijuana.
Cannabinoids, and sometimes marijuana itself, are currently used to lessen the nausea and pain experienced by many cancer patients. The new findings -- yet to be proven in human studies -- suggest that cannabinoids may have a direct anticancer effect.
"Cannabinoids' ... potential therapeutic benefit in the treatment of highly invasive cancers should be addressed in clinical trials," conclude Robert Ramer, PhD, and Burkhard Hinz, PhD, of the University of Rostock, Germany.
Might cannabinoids keep dangerous tumors from spreading throughout the body? Ramer and Hinz set up an experiment in which invasive cervical and lung cancer cells had make their way through a tissue-like gel. Even at very low concentrations, the marijuana compounds THC and methanandamide (MA) significantly slowed the invading cancer cells.
Doses of THC that reduce pain in cancer patients yield blood concentrations much higher than the concentrations needed to inhibit cancer invasion.
"Thus the effects of THC on cell invasion occurred at therapeutically relevant concentrations," Ramer and Hinz note.
The researchers are quick to point out that much more study is needed to find out whether these test-tube results apply to tumor growth in animals and in humans.
Ramer and Hinz report the findings in the Jan. 2, 2008 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Man, when you turn yourself over to the bureaucrats, you don't fool around!
“Nothing has drug down society more than the Idiot Box sitting in all of our living rooms. Maybe we should ban TV’s too.”
If 90% of us degenerated into using it for nothing but Jerry Springer, the same way 90% of potheads compulsively degenerate in their use of dope, I’d support it.
Carolyn
Try talking to friends who kids may smoke for recreation, and try speaking to other cancer patients, as they may have a contact.
Carolyn
Carolyn
Neither does mine.
Carolyn
“If any of this can be proven...then prescribe the therapeutic essence...in medicinal form controlled by the medical establishment, cultured in tightly controlled environments.”
What a great idea!!! Pay the drug companies, government and doctors tens of thousands to try out what you can get for a couple hundred.
The good news is: you don’t have cancer. The bad news is: you don’t care and, even if you did, you are too stupid to understand what I just said.
If you truly want to try this, talk to some close friends and folks you trust to see if they know anybody. There actually are quite reputable, gainfully employed, non-criminals (except for the fact they occasionally smoke pot) out there who have connections.
Hey man...when a major portion of my medical insurance goes to pay for potheads and the misery they inflict...I want it controlled just as alcohol is.
Spoken like a true anarchist...which is what the legalizers are.
Perhaps, but it’s the smoke that’ll kill you.
Agreed!
Just like there are lots of people that have a few drinks and you don't end up seeing them on an episode of "Cops" - there are lots of people that smoke marijuana that actually hold down jobs and don't cause any trouble.
Carolyn
The POTUS is standing down at the border rolling out the red carpet for millions of illegals that annually smuggle in 700 tons of dope a year...It shouldn't be hard.
The question is, does it also slow the growth of normal cells?
My husband died of lung cancer, but it was discovered far too late for any effective treatment. He had “palliative” chemo and radiation, which did him far more harm than good. He only had tumor in his upper right shoulder joint/upper lung when he was diagnosed, and even when he died 6 weeks later, his lungs, except for that main tumor, were clear, but he had mets in his brain, liver, adrenals, etc.
If this were to happen to me, I would try some of the herbal remedies, in particular Medicine Man Tea (you can google this) rather than go through what he endured, which as I said before, did not palliate anything. I’m thinking he would have lived longer if he’d decided against any treatment, but that is just my opinion.
PS, feel free to flame away or ignore me, I just have these opinions because I went through this with my husband. YMMV
Around here people are getting government subsidies to make alcohol.
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