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Marijuana Fights Cancer and Helps Manage Side Effects, Researchers Find
Newsweek/The Daily Beast ^ | Sep 6, 2012 | Martin A. Lee

Posted on 09/08/2012 12:51:31 PM PDT by neverdem

Cristina Sanchez, a young biologist at Complutense University in Madrid, was studying cell metabolism when she noticed something peculiar. She had been screening brain cancer cells because they grow faster than normal cell lines and thus are useful for research purposes. But the cancer cells died each time they were exposed to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive ingredient of marijuana.

Instead of gaining insight into how cells function, Sanchez had stumbled upon the anti-cancer properties of THC. In 1998, she reported in a European biochemistry journal that THC “induces apoptosis [cell death] in C6 glioma cells,” an aggressive form of brain cancer. 

Subsequent peer-reviewed studies in several countries would show that THC and other marijuana-derived compounds, known as “cannabinoids,” are effective not only for cancer-symptom management (nausea, pain, loss of appetite, fatigue), they also confer a direct antitumoral effect

A team of Spanish scientists led by Manuel Guzman conducted the first clinical trial assessing the antitumoral action of THC on human beings. Guzman administered pure THC via a catheter into the tumors of nine hospitalized patients with glioblastoma, who had failed to respond to standard brain-cancer therapies. The results were published in 2006 in the British Journal of Pharmacology: THC treatment was associated with significantly reduced tumor cell proliferation in every test subject

Around the same time, Harvard University scientists ++reported++[ http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v95/n2/abs/6603236a.html] that THC slows tumor growth in common lung cancer and “significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread.” What’s more, like a heat-seeking missile, THC selectively targets and destroys tumor cells while leaving healthy cells unscathed. Conventional chemotherapy drugs, by contrast, are highly toxic; they indiscriminately damage the brain and body.

Medical Marijuana Crackdown

Aric Crabb, Bay Area News Group / AP Photos

There is mounting evidence, according to a report in Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry, that cannabinoids “represent a new class of anticancer drugs that retard cancer growth, inhibit angiogenesis [the formation of new blood cells that feed a tumor] and the metastatic spreading of cancer cells.”

Dr. Sean McAllister, a scientist at the Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, has been studying cannabinoid compounds for 10 years in a quest to develop new therapeutic interventions for various cancers. Backed by grants from the National Institute of Health (and with a license from the DEA), McAllister discovered that cannabidiol (CBD), a nonpsychoactive component of the marijuana plant, is a potent inhibitor of breast cancer cell proliferation, metastasis, and tumor growth. 

In 2007, McAllister published a detailed account of how cannabidiol kills breast cancer cells and destroys malignant tumors by switching off expression of the ID-1 gene, a protein that appears to play a major role as a cancer cell conductor.   

The ID-1 gene is active during human embryonic development, after which it turns off and stays off. But in breast cancer and several other types of metastatic cancer, the ID-1 gene becomes active again, causing malignant cells to invade and metastasize. “Dozens of aggressive cancers express this gene,” explains McAllister. He postulates that CBD, by virtue of its ability to silence ID-1 expression, could be a breakthrough anti-cancer medication.

“Cannabidiol offers hope of a non-toxic therapy that could treat aggressive forms of cancer without any of the painful side effects of chemotherapy,” says McAllister, who is seeking support to conduct clinical trials with the marijuana compound on breast cancer patients.

McAllister’s lab also is analyzing how CBD works in combination with first-line chemotherapy agents. His research shows that cannabidiol, a potent antitumoral compound in its own right, acts synergistically with various anti-cancer pharmaceuticals, enhancing their impact while cutting the toxic dosage necessary for maximum effect.

cancer-cells-marijuana-lee

Breast cancer cells killed by CBD on right compared to untreated breast cancer cells on left. (Courtesy Pacific Medical Center)

“Cannabidiol offers hope of a non-toxic therapy that could treat aggressive forms of cancer without any of the painful side effects of chemotherapy.

Investigators at St. George’s University in London observed a similar pattern with THC, which magnified the effectiveness of conventional antileukemia therapies in preclinical studies. THC and cannabidiol both induce apoptosis in leukemic cell lines.

At the annual summer conference of the International Cannabinoid Research Society, held this year in Freiburg, Germany, 300 scientists from around the world discussed their latest findings, which are pointing the way toward novel treatment strategies for cancer and other degenerative diseases. Italian investigators described CBD as “the most efficacious inducer of apoptosis” in prostate cancer. Ditto for cannabidiol and colon cancer, according to British researchers at Lancaster University.

Within the medical science community, the discovery that cannabinoids have anti-tumoral properties is increasingly recognized as a seminal advancement in cancer therapeutics.

Martin A. Lee is the author of Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana – Medical, Recreational and Scientific (Scribner, August 2012). He is the cofounder of the media watch group FAIR, director of Project CBD, and the author of Acid Dreams and The Beast Reawakens. For more information and regular updates, follow Smoke Signals—the book on Facebook.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Testing
KEYWORDS: cancer; cannabis; drugs; drugwar; marijuana; medicalmarijuana; medicine; medpot; warondrugs; wod; wodlist; wosd
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To: ansel12; TigersEye
Why does it take you two posts every time, why can’t you usually answer or post to me with a single post?

That's a pathetic attempt to misdirect from the substantive arguments you're losing ... and also wrong: see the post you replied to, and also posts 94, 80, 72, and 65.

Actually it was a real question,

No it wasn't, as witness your not replying to any other of my posts - but I answered it anyway.

also I doubt that the rest of us need you pinging us to each other’s posts and asking questions in our behalf, like you did in post 95.

TigersEye, you have a problem with my asking questions in your behalf, like I did in post 95?

101 posted on 09/08/2012 4:28:22 PM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: longtermmemmory
for potheads from rio linda “Dave’s not here maaaaaan.”

My youngest son is still wondering why I named him "Dave". :)

102 posted on 09/08/2012 4:32:32 PM PDT by The Duke
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To: JustSayNoToNannies
Bad cases make bad law.
103 posted on 09/08/2012 4:35:53 PM PDT by stillonaroll (Nominate a non-RINO in 2012!...uh, too late, never mind.)
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To: TigersEye

Like I said..noble and happy people have zero need or want to for escapes.


104 posted on 09/08/2012 4:38:29 PM PDT by fabian (" And a new day will dawn for those who stand long, and the forests will echo with laughter"you min)
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To: stillonaroll
I suspect the "medical" needs for MJ are bogus 99% of the time.

So the 1% can go suck eggs?

Bad cases make bad law.

So that's a "yes." Duly noted.

105 posted on 09/08/2012 4:40:10 PM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies
Oh, lighten up Francis. Take a toke and settle down!
106 posted on 09/08/2012 4:42:16 PM PDT by stillonaroll (Nominate a non-RINO in 2012!...uh, too late, never mind.)
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To: ansel12
The following posts await your reply:

95
94
87
75
65

107 posted on 09/08/2012 4:42:55 PM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: stillonaroll
I suspect the "medical" needs for MJ are bogus 99% of the time.

So the 1% can go suck eggs?

Bad cases make bad law.

So that's a "yes." Duly noted.

Oh, lighten up Francis.

I'll let the 1% with genuine medical needs know they should just "lighten up."

108 posted on 09/08/2012 4:44:31 PM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies

You ever think that you just aren’t very interesting, and that you getting all worked up and obsessive, and kind of freaky and frothing, only makes it worse.


109 posted on 09/08/2012 4:45:57 PM PDT by ansel12 ( Aug. 27, 2012-Mitt Romney said his views on abortion are more lenient than the Republican Platform)
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To: ansel12

People just like to smoke it and get high more than they like feeling normal. If they don’t interfere with me, I don’t care. But if they do interfere with me, there’s a problem.


110 posted on 09/08/2012 4:48:35 PM PDT by Argus
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To: fabian
Like I said..noble and happy people have zero need or want to for escapes.

That's why they never read fiction.

111 posted on 09/08/2012 4:50:28 PM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: tacticalogic

Yes, actually real life stories are better!


112 posted on 09/08/2012 4:56:30 PM PDT by fabian (" And a new day will dawn for those who stand long, and the forests will echo with laughter"you min)
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To: ansel12
The following posts await your reply:

95
94
87
75
65

You ever think that you just aren’t very interesting

Your pathetic evasions are interesting examples of the intellectual and moral poverty of the Drug Warrior position.

113 posted on 09/08/2012 4:58:44 PM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: ansel12; TigersEye
I have seen much more of the drug world than the typical freeper.

Based on the legitimate responses to your own comments, you're losing this argument in a big way.

114 posted on 09/08/2012 5:04:50 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: GeronL
There is no way to create an identical version of THC produced by the plant in a lab.

Read Dr. Alex Shulgin’s research on the inadequacy of synthetic THC.

The thousands of compounds found in cannabis are all cannabinoids and are closely related to the cannabinoids naturally found in the human body. These endocannabinoids are involved in the regulation of practically every body function. Cannabis has more human symbiotic compounds and natural medical potential than any other plant.

There is also no need to inhale smoke. One can vaporize the plant into medicinal vapor with a device barely larger than a lighter. One can also process the plant into pills using only standard kitchen utensils. It costs almost nothing to grow the plant and make your own smoke-free medicine. The drug companies would never allow it.

115 posted on 09/08/2012 5:06:56 PM PDT by varyouga
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To: neverdem

There is nothing new about this information.

In fact, it is the most probable reason for the “War on Drugs.”

Letting the many effective cancer cures become mainstream would bankrupt the pharmaceutical poison manufacturers.


116 posted on 09/08/2012 5:10:42 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: dragnet2

Losing what argument, legalized drugs, homosexual marriage, open borders, pornography, prostitution, polygamy, abortion?

Getting on a thread for a while to challenge some of the liberals among conservatives, isn’t really a win or lose situation, it is merely wasting a little time on a thread until the fanaticism totally takes over among the drug crowd.

For conservatives to not resist the left, is to merely roll over.


117 posted on 09/08/2012 5:12:10 PM PDT by ansel12 ( Aug. 27, 2012-Mitt Romney said his views on abortion are more lenient than the Republican Platform)
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To: ansel12
Losing what argument, legalized drugs,

Oh, yeah.

homosexual marriage, open borders, pornography, prostitution, polygamy

None of those have been argued on this thread. Are you losing your grip on reality?

118 posted on 09/08/2012 5:15:03 PM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: neverdem

The War on Drugs has been one of the biggest debacles in our nation’s history. It has been tremendously costly, has led to us having the world’s largest prison population, and has had spill over violence effects in other places all while failing to actually cure drug abuse. The fact that some so-called small government conservatives can continue to support it is beyond me.=


119 posted on 09/08/2012 5:15:41 PM PDT by Woodsman27
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To: longtermmemmory; All

>> “If this was a legit actual proven medical use there is no need for pothead stores with a pretext. Doctors would perscribe it and it would be purchased at the pharmacy.” <<

.
Even you can’t possibly be that naive.

Pot is illegal precisely because it is such an effective healer, and would deny the big boys trillions of dollars a year.


120 posted on 09/08/2012 5:20:32 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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