Marijuana Fights Cancer and Helps Manage Side Effects, Researchers Find

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.

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.

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.

I would like to refer the skeptics to this article published on June 19, 2010 in Science News:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/issue/id/59966/title/June_19th,_2010%3B_Vol.177_%2313

Here is a partial list of cancers that have been shown to have documented sensitivity to cannabinoids (CBD, THC).
Lung carinoma - decresed tumor size
Glioma - programmed cell death
Prostate carcinoma- cell death
Lymphoma- cell death
Skin carcinoma- cell death

Is marijuana a panacea plant that will save the earth? Of course not, but it does have many beneficial uses for human health and well being. Besides combating nausea, multiple sclerosis, inflamation, it has also proven to save the lives of many of our combat veterans who suffer and commit suicide from PTSD (THC activates the part of the brain that helps us forget things, hence the “stoner” stigma of forgetting etc), but this is exactly what many our boys coming home need in order to get rid of their PTSD. And it is also why the VA has changed its own rules and now allows veterans who live in states that have legalized medical marijuana to continue to receive treatment from the VA if they use marijuana (before the VA would refuse services to such individuals).

See here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/health/policy/24veterans.html?pagewanted=all

And also here:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2012/05/30/20120530veterans-say-marijuana-eases-ptsd.html

It is a shame that misinformation, stereotyping, and religious/moral judgements have gotten in the way of the truth about medical marijuana for such a long time. But the information is out there and I would ask that before you scoff or scorn, you become informed and either way you decide, become involved.

I find it difficult to believe that your path never led you into someones home, or into their car, or with other passengers or people in a home who would not want to be involved in a potential drug bust while you were holding.

That's because you don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about either from the legal perspective or the physiological perspective. People who have pot in their homes are highly unlikely to be subject to a bust. I know of no one over the years that has been "busted." If they have pot there why would I take mine? The legal consequences of less than an oz. is a fine with no arrest anyway. If someone else is "holding" while in my vehicle they get the ticket not me and I have only been pulled over twice in the last 45 years because my vehicles are always in good shape, tags up to date and my driving is excellent.

I doubt that your anecdotes are true but if they are I have to wonder why you associate with such people. All of my friends are responsible working people who don't drive badly, get into fights, have loud drunken parties or act like teenagers.

The local police and sheriffs here have almost zero interest in minor pot arrests to boot. 90% of those arrests are the kids who are driving like jerks and DUIs. The alcohol is what does them in. The people I associate with don't act the way you describe and won't long tolerate those who do around them. I don't.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.