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.
A major portion of your medical insurance goes to pay for potheads and the misery they inflict? Is that so? What percentage, exactly, of the money you pay for medical insurance goes directly to potheads---and the misery they inflict? Thirty percent? Forty? Fifty?
Or perhaps, are you being a tad disingenuous?
I can kill cancer completely in a test-tube. It’s easy.
First I boil some water on the stove, and lower the test-tube into the boiling water for about 20 minutes. The cancer is completely killed!
All we have to do now is figure out how to apply this cure in humans. We are optimistic. Should we form a company and start issuing stock?
Test tubes everywhere are rejoicing!
I'm sorry about your husband. I do know that any lung cancer that has gone beyond the lungs is almost certain death. As you say, it's worth it to try anything at that point. I also am willing to try almost anything, because modern medicine can't work miracles.
Carolyn
Carolyn, all my best to you, sounds as though you have better than even odds to beat this thing. I’ll certainly keep you in prayers, I’m SO happy to hear yours was found early.
Bests,
Judy
“Spoken like a true anarchist...which is what the legalizers are.”
People who actually know me would be quite amused at your uninformed description of me. I don’t understand how wanting to use a plant that God put on the Earth makes me an anarchist. Could you elaborate?
BTW, while I did smoke pot once upon a time, I haven’t in many years. However, if I ever found myself with a condition that others say pot helped them, I’d go back to it in a flash.
Good luck to you.
I have a friend down the street with non-Hodgkins who had never tried pot in his life. He finally did try it after the chemo got so bad and although it hasn’t helped arrest the cancer, his nausea and ability to eat are definitely much better. He’s not going to survive, but the quality of life that’s left to him has improved. But then I guess that makes him one of those darn anarchists.
“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.”
What on Earth are you talking about? Is your tinfoil properly arranged?
So if you want pot controlled just as alcohol is, that means you want it made legal?
Pot may slow it but I bet alcohol kills it
Is the slowing due to temporary confusion?
90%? Where did you come up with that number?
Just because 90% of all the people I know that drink alcohol are violent jagoffs doesn’t mean that the 90% of the total alcohol using population is the same way.
I hope no one supports the Mexican mafia drug lords by purchasing their product. These drug lords are destroying life in several countries, all because people want to get high.
I have sympathy for sick people. I wish they could get their marijuana from home-grown sources and not support the most murderous, dangerous thugs known to mankind.
When you find out, let me know. Too bad you can't go down to the liquor store.
Carolyn,
Yours is a problem that many are forced to deal with and if your not careful you could wind up in the clink. I find the late night concierge at most larger hotels know the score. Cabbies are another source of information on whom is holding.
Isn’t it terrible that we are forced to be law breakers over a medicinal WEED? Good Luck!
It would also be inconsistent with 90% of other people’s experience, defying credulity, where as 90% of people would recognize pot smoking as a motivation suppressing endeavor that leads many to excess and ruin.
I spent several hours researching statistics on this last spring that are included in 3 long posts here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1820586/posts. Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to carry that debate to finish. Same goes for today.
Carolyn
A little while ago it was "90% of the people who use it are led to excess and ruin". You seem to be stuck on 90% of something, but can't seem to decide what it is.
What region of the country do you live in? There may actually be some Freepers who can help you out.
“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.”
90 percent? I assume you have proof of this outlandish statement.
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