Marijuana Has Anti-Cancer Properties

[Ganjarden]

The active ingredient in marijuana appears to target cancerous brain cells for destruction while leaving healthy cells alone, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Complutense University in Madrid, and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Researchers first conducted an experiment in mice that had been engineered to carry three different grafts of human brain cancer. They injected the mice daily with the molecule tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) near the site of the tumors once each day. The chemical appeared to stimulate the cancerous cells to engage in a process known as autophagy, in which cells initiate their own breakdown.

"These results may help to design new cancer therapies based on the use of medicines containing the active principle of marijuana and/or in the activation of autophagy," researcher Guillermo Velasco said.

THC belongs to a class of chemicals known as cannabinoids, named after the cannabis (marijuana) plant in which they occur. It is the chemical responsible for the psychoactive effects of marijuana consumption.

In a followup experiment, the researchers extracted and analyzed brain tissue from two patients with an aggressive form of brain cancer known as "recurrent glioblastoma multiforme." The patients were treated with THC for either 26 or 30 days, then the researchers extracted and analyzed another sample.

After examining the brain tissue under an electron microscope, the researchers discovered that THC treatment resulted in death of cancerous cells but had no effect on healthy ones. The researchers were also able to discover the signaling pathway by which THC acts.

The research opens up the possibility that cannabinoid research could yield "a new family of potential antitumoral agents," the researchers wrote.

Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common and aggressive form of primary brain tumor. Without treatment, the average patient lives only three months after being diagnosed with the cancer. Treatment extends the average life expectancy after diagnosis by less than a year.


News Hawk- Ganjarden http://www.420Magazine.com
Source: Natural News
Author: David Gutierrez
Contact: Natural News
Copyright: 2009 Natural News Network
Website: Marijuana Has Anti-Cancer Properties

[Soniq420]

We live in the town of oppositeville

Every reefer madness claim ultimately goes up in smoke.

Donald Tashkin spent 30? (paid) years searching for a link between Marijuana and cancer, and what did he find ?

Cannabis has anti-tumorial properties.

Seems like everyday more confirmation rolls in.

[everest]

wow its great to hear about this research....
i ma so excited to know this that i have forwarded the link to all of my friends who really needs to know about it.

[Soniq420]

This is just one in a long series of underpublicized revelations about Cannabis and Cancer. Here are some of the most noteworthy reports.

Cannabis and Cancer - Facts and Data
THC Cuts Lung Cancer Growth
THC Kills Human Brain Tumor Cells
Lung Cancer and Cannabinoids
Marijuana Shrinks Tumors
Marijuana and Skin Cancer

[Stealthy1]

Just think of the decades America missed researching this plant because of ridiculous drug classification system.

[Lando]

we need more exposure of this kind of research to help sway the closed minds that still fight against us. and wtf is up with all the pot busts in colorado, i thought we were better than that! tsk tsk colorado police, pretty sure i read about two old men raping people this week too, spend time taking out the criminals that hurt people pls thx!

[Brinna]

In 1974, University of Virginia researchers discovered something very unlikely. Cannabis, banned in the United States in 1937, and further demonized by the Nixon administration in 1968, had an unexpected property: it inhibited the growth of lung cancer cells. But, even more surprising was the response from the government: an apparent complete absence, even discouragement of any follow-up studies. The results were briefly mentioned in news reports at the time, but with the end of the Carter administration, cannabis became a step-child as far as scientific research was concerned.

Like any unloved step-child cannabis was treated with different rules, and made a scape-goat for social ills.

There was still research being done on cannabis, but funding was only available if the intent was to prove harm. In fact, it wasn't until the pioneering work done by Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, in Israel, and Dr. Manuel Guzman in Spain, that this startling anti-cancer property of cannabis sativa became public again.

What is even more troubling is that the United States Government actually did a secret follow up-study on the Virginia findings, in the mid '90's. When it only served to confirm the results of the 1974 research, and showed that THC (one of the main active ingredient in cannabis – and the one the government loves to hate), when administered to mice, protected them against malignancy, true to form, our government attempted to bury the results. Fortunately, a draft copy of the study was leaked to the journal, AIDS Treatment News, and the media covered the story. An excellent article by Paul Armentano, Deputy Director of NORML, covers this part of our shameful history.

By 2003, the cat was pretty much out of the bag, and a quick search on PubMed brings up at least 262 results when you put in "cannabis and cancer" in the search string. But, as late as this year, the US Government was still funding research meant to prove that cannabis causes cancer. The extremely flawed survey which attempted to link cannabis smoking with testicular cancer falls into this category. In fact, in 2008, two years after Dr. Donald Tashkin research which showed that not only does cannabis not cause lung cancer, but appears to protect against it, three respected doctors from the cannabis research group felt compelled to write a letter to the European Respiratory Journal debunking a New Zealand study which claimed that smoking cannabis led to an increased risk of lung cancer.

Now, this month in Cancer Prevention Research Journal one can find a study demonstrating that chronic, long term of cannabis actually reduces the incidence of head and neck cancer. Specifically:

"10 to 20 years of marijuana use was associated with a significantly reduced risk of HNSCC" [head and neck squamous cell carcinoma].

Knowing this, are you angry? You should be. It's a safe bet to say you know someone who has cancer. Or died of it.

It's also a safe bet that you didn't hear any coverage of this story in the mainstream media.

For my money, it's way past time for the politics of prohibtion to be thrown aside, and hard science applied to what promises to be an extraordinary new era in the treatment and cure of cancer.

And... we need all the voices we can get saying: That time is now!

_________________________________
published on NowPublic by Brinna Nanda

[TxState]

This kind of information needs to be publicized on every news channel, newspaper, internet, etc. Someone (a pot smoker / activist) needs to become a news reporter and put this all over the news...