MARIJUANA UNLIKELY TO CAUSE HEAD, NECK OR LUNG CANCER

May 8, 2000 (Boston) -- Marijuana, unlike tobacco and alcohol, does not
appear to cause head, neck, or lung cancer, says a researcher from Johns
Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore who presented findings from a study
here recently at a meeting of internal medicine physicians.

There has been an ongoing debate about whether marijuana is as dangerous as
tobacco in terms of cancer development. Daniel E. Ford, MD, tried to sort
out the evidence by the lifestyles -- including marijuana, tobacco, and
alcohol use -- of 164 persons who were newly diagnosed with head, neck, or
lung cancer compared to a group of 526 healthy persons living in the same
area. The average age of patients was 49, while the average age of the
healthy volunteers was 44. The cancer patients were all treated at four
Baltimore-area hospitals, and the "controls" (healthy comparison group)
were selected from a large group of people living in the Baltimore area who
had been participating in an ongoing study. Ford tells WebMD that he wanted
to find out whether the cancer patients were more likely to smoke marijuana
or tobacco or to drink than were the healthy volunteers.

According to Ford, he thought he would find an association between
marijuana use and cancer, but "that the association would fall away when we
corrected for tobacco use. That was not the case. The association was never
there." And that surprised him because of the way marijuana is smoked: deep
inhalations, with the smoke held in for effect. "It seemed natural that
there would be some connection," he tells WebMD.

Based on these findings, Ford says that cancer prevention efforts should
"remain focused on tobacco and alcohol, two known carcinogens."


Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 <http://my.webmd.com/content/article/1728.57309>
http://my.webmd.com/content/article/1728.57309
By Peggy Peck
WebMD Medical News