Peter Dearman's List: cannabis-cancer

• THC had anticancer effects in mice with human brain cancer cells and people with brain tumors. When mice with the human brain cancer cells received the THC, the tumor growth shrank.

• Federal health and drug enforcement officials have widely used Tashkin's previous work on marijuana to make the case that the drug is dangerous. Tashkin said that while he still believes marijuana is potentially harmful, its cancer-causing effects appear to be of less concern than previously thought.
• However, marijuana also contains the chemical THC, which he said may kill aging cells and keep them from becoming cancerous.

• cannabis extracts block a key chemical needed for tumours to sprout blood vessels - a process called angiogenesis.
• "The cannabinoid inhibits the angiogenesis response - if a tumour doesn't do angiogenesis, it doesn't grow," she explains. "So if you can improve angiogenesis on one side and kill the tumour cells on the other side, you can try for a therapy for cancer."

• Tumours in the control mice averaged about 0.6 grams in weight by the end of the five-week trial. By comparison, those in the mice that received THC weighed just 0.25 grams - 60% less.
• Ganju believes that THC inhibits cancer growth by blocking the formation of blood vessels within tumours.
• While some studies have found no link between cannabis use and cancer, others have concluded that cannabis smoking is "more harmful" than tobacco because the smoke is inhaled more deeply into the lungs.

  • The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer
    http://tinyurl.com/cp2o2c
    
    Who knew?

  • Sounds like a very scientific conclusion to me.
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• anti-invasive action of cannabinoids was analyzed by transfecting HeLa, human cervical carcinoma (C33A), or human lung carcinoma cells
• THC caused a time- and concentration-dependent suppression of HeLa cell invasion
• therapeutic option in the treatment of highly invasive cancers
• cannabinoids had been shown to reduce the invasiveness of cancer cells, but the cellular mechanisms underlying this effect were unclear
• currently used to palliate wasting, emesis, and pain in cancer patients, there is increasing evidence to suggest that these compounds may be useful for the inhibition of tumor cell growth
• regression of lung adenocarcinomas (2), gliomas (3,4), thyroid epitheliomas (5), lymphomas (6), and skin carcinomas

  • Works on many kinds of cancer, so likely works for all or most.
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• Although the mechanisms underlying the proapoptotic and antiproliferative actions of cannabinoids have been studied extensively, there are only a few reports of anti-invasive properties of these compounds (7,19,20), and the mechanism that leads to decreased invasiveness of cancer cells exposed to cannabinoids has not been clarified. Cancer cell invasion is one of the crucial events in local spreading, growth, and metastasis of tumors.
• considerable evidence to suggest an important role for cannabinoids in conferring anticarcinogenic activities
• decrease of invasiveness by MA and THC was statistically significant at concentrations as low as 0.1 µM and 0.01 µM
• In humans, average peak plasma concentrations of THC of 0.03 µM and 0.045 µM could be achieved with oral doses of 15 and 20 mg, respectively
• it is not known to what extent the principal finding of this study can be generalized to cell types other than those examined in this study. Moreover, further studies will be required to examine the relevance of our findings to in vivo tumors.

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• Reefer Madness 2 also travels to India where marijuana is openly cultivated and used in medicine, rituals and recreationally, as it has been for thousands of years with little indication of its supposed damaging effects.
• Dr. Lester Grinspoon of Harvard Medical School and the author of Forbidden Medicine, recounts how a personal experience affecting his own family reinforced his determination to try and set the record straight about the marijuana use and cancer patients.

• The International Medical Verities Association is putting hemp oil on its cancer protocol. It is a prioritized protocol list whose top five items are magnesium chloride, iodine, selenium, Alpha Lipoic Acid and sodium bicarbonate.
• unique ratio of omega3 to omega6 and gamma linolenic acid (GLA) - 2:5:1. Hemp oil, is known to contain up to 5% of pure GLA, a much higher concentration than any other plant, even higher than spirulina.
• Dr. Robert Ramer and Dr. Burkhard Hinz of the University of Rostock in Germany medical marijuana can be an effective treatment for cancer.[v] Their research was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute Advance Access on December 25th of 2007 in a paper entitled Inhibition of Cancer Cell Invasion by Cannabinoids via Increased Expression of Tissue Inhibitor of Matrix Metalloproteinases-1.

  • Although cannabinoids are currently used to palliate wasting, emesis, and pain in cancer patients, there is increasing evidence to suggest that these compounds may be useful for the inhibition of tumor cell growth t

  • Full text available:
    http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/djm268v1
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• Delta-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), inhibits EGF-induced growth and migration in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expressing non-small cell lung cancer cell lines. Lung cancers that over-express EGFR are usually highly aggressive and resistant to chemotherapy. THC that targets cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 is similar in function to endocannabinoids, which are cannabinoids that are naturally produced in the body and activate these receptors.
• The first experiment documenting pot's anti-tumor effects took place in 1974 at the Medical College of Virginia at the behest of the U.S. government. The results of that study, reported in an Aug. 18, 1974, Washington Post newspaper feature, were that marijuana's psychoactive component, THC, "slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers and a virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged their lives by as much as 36 percent."[xii]
• The DEA quickly shut down the Virginia study and all further cannabis/tumor research even though the researchers "found that THC slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers and a virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged their lives by as much as 36 percent."
• Sodium bicarbonate is another excellent anti tumor substance that reduces tumors but is much more difficult to administer than THC hemp oil. Cannabinoids are able to pass through all barriers in the body like Alpha Lipoic Acid so simple oral intake is sufficient. With bicarbonate we need intravenous applications and often even this is not sufficient, often we have to use catheters and few doctors in the world are willing to administer this way.
• It is legal for doctors to attack people with their poisons but you can go to jail for trying to save yourself or a loved one from cancer with the oil of a simple garden weed. Our civilization has put up with this insanity but there is a great price being paid. In a mad medical world people die that need not and this is a terrible sadness that has destroyed the integrity and ethics of modern medicine.
• Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico and recent candidate for president of the United States ordered the state Health Department in 2007 to resume planning of a medical marijuana program despite the agency's worries about possible federal prosecution. However, the governor stopped short of committing to implement a state-licensed production and distribution system for the drug because State employees could face federal prosecution for implementing the law, which took effect in July. Now that he is being pursued perhaps for the office of vice-president[xvi] things could get interesting on a federal level. We can only hope but for now to get THC hemp oil one would have to grow the plants and make the oil oneself.

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• Recent scientific research indicates that essential fatty acids (EFAs) cannot be manufactured by the human body and deficiencies can cause undesirable chronic conditions such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and eczema. Therefore, hemp seed and its by-products can be used to supplement diets poor in EFAs in order to maintain health. One by-product, hemp seed oil, contains 30% of its weight in EFA-rich oil, delivering an ideal combination of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids for long term use. Hemp seed oil may have potential health benefits for diabetes, cancer, lupus, asthma rheumatoid arthritis, depression and hypertension. Hemp is one of only two plants that contain both EFAs as well as gamma linolenic acid (GLA). GLA has been found to have many properties ranging from anti-inflammatory to anti-depression. It can lower cholesterol and help to correct dyslexia, dyspraxia, and hyperactivity (ADHD). Approximately one-third of the population lacks the enzyme to metabolize GLA from omega 6 and must take GLA from an outside source to maintain good health, and hemp is an excellent way for them to do so.