Study Explains How Cannabis Kills Cancer Cells

[grace]

A study published recently in Nature Reviews-Cancer provides an historic and detailed explanation about how THC and natural cannabinoids counteract cancer, but preserve normal cells.

 

The study by Manuel Guzmán of Madrid Spain found that cannabinoids, the active components of marijuana, inhibit tumor growth in laboratory animals.

 

They do so by modulating key cell-signalling pathways, thereby inducing direct growth arrest and death of tumor cells, as well as by inhibiting the growth of blood vessels that supply the tumor.

 

The Guzman study is very important according to Dr. Ethan Russo , a neurologist and world authority on medical cannabis:

 

"Cancer occurs because cells become immortalized; they fail to heed normal signals to turn off growth. A normal function of remodelling in the body requires that cells die on cue. This is called apoptosis, or programmed cell death. That process fails to work in tumors. THC promotes its reappearance so that gliomas, leukemias, melanomas and other cell types will in fact heed the signals, stop dividing, and die."

 

"But, that is not all," explains Dr. Russo: "The other way that tumors grow is by ensuring that they are nourished: they send out signals to promote angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels. Cannabinoids turn off these signals as well. It is truly incredible, and elegant."

 

In other words, this article explains several ways in which cannabinoids might be used to fight cancer, and, as the article says, "Cannabinoids are usually well tolerated, and do not produce the generalized toxic effects of conventional chemotherapies.

 

Usually, any story that even suggests the possibility of a new treatment for cancer is greeted with headlines about a "cancer cure" - however remote in the future and improbable in fact it might be.

 

But if marijuana is involved, don't expect any coverage from mainstream media, especially since mainstream editors have been quietly killing this story for the past thirty years.

 

That's right, news about the abilility of pot to shrink tumors first surfaced, way back in 1974. Researchers at the Medical College of Virginia, who had been funded by the National Institutes of Health to find evidence that marijuana damages the immune system, found instead that THC slowed the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice -- lung and breast cancer, and a virus-induced leukemia.

 

The Washington Post reported on the 1974 study -- in the "Local" section -- on Aug. 18, 1974. Under the headline, "Cancer Curb Is Studied," it read in part: "The active chemical agent in marijuana curbs the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice and may also suppress the immunity reaction that causes rejection of organ transplants, a Medical College of Virginia team has discovered." 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."

 

"News coverage of the Madrid discovery has been virtually nonexistent in this country. The news broke quietly on Feb. 29, 2000 with a story that ran once on the UPI wire about the Nature Medicine article," complained MarijuanaNews.com editor Richard Cowan, who said he was only able to find the article through a link that appeared briefly on the Drudge Report Web page. "The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times all ignored the story, even though its newsworthiness is indisputable: a benign substance occurring in nature destroys deadly brain tumors," added Cowan.

 

On March 29, 2001, the San Antonio Current printed a carefully researched, bombshell of a story by Raymond Cushing titled, "POT SHRINKS TUMORS; GOVERNMENT KNEW IN '74." Media coverage since then has been nonexistant, except for a copy of the story on Alternet .

 

It is hard to believe that the knowledge that cannabis can be used to fight cancer has been suppressed for almost thirty years , yet it seems likely that it will continue to be suppressed. Why?

 

According to Cowan, the answer is because it is a threat to cannabis prohibition . "If this article and its predecessors from 2000 and 1974 were the only evidence of the suppression of medical cannabis, then one might perhaps be able to rationalize it in some herniated way. However, there really is massive proof that the suppression of medical cannabis represents the greatest failure of the institutions of a free society, medicine, journalism, science, and our fundamental values," Cowan notes.

 

Millions of people have died horrible deaths and in many cases, familes exhausted their savings on dangerous, toxic and expensive drugs. Now we are just beginning to realize that while marijuana has never killed anyone, marijuana prohibition has killed millions.

 

By Steve Kubby

 

Originally published at http://drugpolicycentral.com

 

Author: Steve Kubby

Date: 24 March 2009

Source: PR Cannazine News

http://pr.cannazine.co.uk/20090322955/cann...ncer-cells.html

[CannabisMan]

My god they found out these things in the age before DNA research 1974 . Technology has come so much further if only more people accepted that Prohibition is wrong, wheres our freedom. On a good note we will all be cancer free

[Jedi Hippie]

I wouldn`t go so far as to say we will all be cancer free.While THC has shown to reduce cancerous cells in some types of cancer,it has also been shown to possibly help induce cancerous growths.The MJ community tends to look only at the positives,and ignore the negative impact that MJ smoking may have upon you.While the overwhelming evidence suggests that Delta 9 and the other cannabinoids do have many benefits,it all has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Unfortunately the world governments have an extremely narrow view when it comes to drug use,unless it is an old,established pleasure/habit (alchohol/tobacco).Polititians are too concerned about their own egos,and what would happen if they spoke up for MJ use.It even seems that the people don`t have a say in their own country.Overwhelming support of MJ use as both a recreational and medicinal has largely been ignored by our politians.I also believe that the US has influenced many countries decisions regarding MJ use.I live in Canada,and it seems our polititians follow whatever the US decides.

Here are a few articles on the subject.If interested there are thousands of medical articles on the uses of marijuana,mostly in favor of THC uses in medicine.

 

 

Lorente M, Carracedo A, Torres S, Natali F, Egia A, Hernández-Tiedra S, Salazar M, Blázquez C, Guzmán M, Velasco G.

 

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I, School of Biology, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain.

 

Gliomas, one of the most malignant forms of cancer, exhibit high resistance to conventional therapies. Identification of the molecular mechanisms responsible for this resistance is therefore of great interest to improve the efficacy of the treatments against these tumors. Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the major active ingredient of marijuana, and other cannabinoids inhibit tumor growth in animal models of cancer, including glioma, an effect that relies, at least in part, on the ability of these compounds to induce apoptosis of tumor cells. By analyzing the gene expression profile of two sub-clones of C6 glioma cells with different sensitivity to cannabinoid-induced apoptosis, we found a subset of genes with a marked differential expression in the two sub-clones. Furthermore, we identified the epidermal growth factor receptor ligand amphiregulin as a candidate factor to mediate the resistance of glioma cells to cannabinoid treatment. Amphiregulin was highly overexpressed in the cannabinoid-resistant cell line, both in culture and in tumor xenografts. Moreover, in vivo silencing of amphiregulin rendered the resistant tumors xenografts sensitive to cannabinoid antitumoral action. Amphiregulin expression was associated with increased extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activation, which mediated the resistance to THC by blunting the expression of p8 and TRB3-two genes involved in cannabinoid-induced apoptosis of glioma cells. Our findings therefore identify Amphirregulin as a factor for resistance of glioma cells to THC-induced apoptosis and contribute to unraveling the molecular bases underlying the emerging notion that targeted inhibition of the EGFR pathway can improve the efficacy of antitumoral therapies. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

 

 

 

Galanti G, Fisher T, Kventsel I, Shoham J, Gallily R, Mechoulam R, Lavie G, Amariglio N, Rechavi G, Toren A.

 

The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Science, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.

 

BACKGROUND: The active components of Cannabis sativa L., Cannabinoids, traditionally used in the field of cancer for alleviation of pain, nausea, wasting and improvement of well-being have received renewed interest in recent years due to their diverse pharmacologic activities such as cell growth inhibition, anti-inflammatory activity and induction of tumor regression. Here we used several experimental approaches, which identified delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta(9)-THC) as an essential mediator of cannabinoid antitumoral action. METHODS AND RESULTS: Administration of Delta(9)-THC to glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cell lines results in a significant decrease in cell viability. Cell cycle analysis showed G(0/1) arrest and did not reveal occurrence of apoptosis in the absence of any sub-G(1) populations. Western blot analyses revealed a THC altered cellular content of proteins that regulate cell progression through the cell cycle. The cell content of E2F1 and Cyclin A, two proteins that promote cell cycle progression, were suppressed in both U251-MG and U87-MG human glioblastoma cell lines, whereas the level of p16(INK4A), a cell cycle inhibitor was upregulated. Transcription of thymidylate synthase (TS) mRNA, which is promoted by E2F1, also declined as evident by QRT-PCR. The decrease in E2F1 levels resulted from proteasome mediated degradation and was prevented by proteasome inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS: Delta(9)-THC is shown to significantly affect viability of GBM cells via a mechanism that appears to elicit G(1) arrest due to downregulation of E2F1 and Cyclin A. Hence, it is suggested that Delta(9)-THC and other cannabinoids be implemented in future clinical evaluation as a therapeutic modality for brain tumors.

 

 

Massi P, Vaccani A, Parolaro D.

 

DBSF Pharmacology Unit and Centre of Neuroscience, University of Insubria, Via A. da Giussano 10, 21052 Busto Arsizio (VA), Italy.

 

How cannabinoids influence immune function has been examined extensively in the last 30 years. Studies on drug-abusing humans and animals, as well as in vitro models employing immune cell cultures, have shown that marijuana, natural and endogenous cannabinoid compounds are immunomodulators. These substances modulate host resistance to bacterial, protozoan and viral infections as well as they can profoundly affect the Th1/Th2 response. Recently, two types of cannabinoid receptor, CB1 and CB2, have been discovered. While CB1 is expressed primarily in the brain, CB2 is peculiar of the immune cells. Cannabinoid receptors have been shown to be involved in some but not all of immune effects. Nevertheless, their identification provides a specific mechanism of action in the attempting to find out how exogenous cannabinoids and endogenous cannabinoid system affect the immune apparatus, strengthen the hypothesis of cannabinoids as immunomodulators. As support to this theory, enough evidence exists to suggest that the cannabinoid system significantly affects almost every component of the immune response machinery and impacts the functioning also of the cytokine network. The evaluation of the biological consequences of these drug-induced cytokine changes has also dramatically become important considering not only the impact of cytokines on immune system per se but also envisaging their influence in cancer, inflammation, autoimmune disease, brain injury, hematopoietic colony formation in which cannabinoids have demonstrated a clear role as important modulators.

 

 

 

Vignot S, Besse B, de la Motte Rouge T, Massard C, Spano JP, Karila L.

 

Association d'études et de recherche des Internes en oncologie, 24, rue Victor Massé, 75009 Paris.

 

The two varieties of hemp, Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica, contain about sixty compounds, named cannabinoids. The most abundant molecule, Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is involved in the biological effects of cannabis due to its analogy with endogenous substances (endocannabinoids) thus activating specific receptors : CB1 and CB2. A better knowledge of cannabinoids and their receptors leds to new interrogations, beyond the addictology, in particular in oncology. This review of the literature analyses these questions with special concern on the carcinogenic role of cannabis, the potential antitumor effect of cannabinoids and the place of THC and its derivatives for supportive care in cancerology.

 

 

Peace

[Ultra]

Study Explains How Cannabis Kills Cancer Cells - Canna Zine ... That's right,

news about the abilility of pot to shrink tumors first surfaced, ... Scientific

and press articles about cannabis, CONTAMINATION

[luciddreaming]

I'm going to wwrite to the age and see if they will publish this. Maybe they haven't heard about it yet.

[bufo marinus]

I'm going to wwrite to the age and see if they will publish this. Maybe they haven't heard about it yet.

 

 

Good idea man

[luciddreaming]

Ok I wrote in this is the reply I got and my e-mail to him and my reply to his e-mail.

 

I have a study which proves for a fact, scientifically, that there is a cure for cancer available right now. I believe you are a newspaper which believes in free-speech and more a leftist stance politically.

If I am right I hope you will publish this because it needs to be known and almost all other newspapers just haven't bothered to publish it (none in Australia have yet). When usually the media jumps at the chance at any possible hope for a better cancer cure than chemo.

This isn't a hope, this is proven. Please take a look and I really hope you aren't one of the normal mainstream media outlets, because I don't believe you are.

 

Here it is,

 

(copy and pasted this study underneath)

 

He Replied

 

Gday,

Nice conspiracy theory!

But sorry to burst your bubble, cannabis is already APPROVED by the TGA for use in the treatment of many conditions such as MS and HIV. It's even used in cancer treatment - though as a pain-relieving and anti-emetic adjunct rather than the main anti-cancer drug.

I came across this just the other day. Check out:

http://www.tga.gov.au/ndpsc/record/rr200902.pdf

Go to item 12.1.6, page 151, you'll see a history of legal cannabis-derived medicine here and overseas going back 20 or so years.

Given this, why on earth would there be some conspiracy to suppress its use in treating cancer, when they're quite willing to use it to treat other illnesses?

It seems a much more likely theory that its use in treating cancer simply hasn't been proven yet, beyond some interesting results in test tube and animal studies.

And remember, just because something may have an anti-cancer effect, doesn't mean it is the BEST or most effective drug for use in chemotherapy (which is what you're proposing here - it's still a chemical, whether derived from a natural substance or cooked up in a lab. Natural chemicals can be more or less effective than artificial alternatives, there's no hard and fast rule)

But thanks for getting in touch!

cheers

Nick Miller

health editor

 

That thing he linked to had nothing to do with Cannabis from what I could tell but all the medicine names are marked out with XXXXXX so I dunno. But I replied with this.

 

Hi Nick,

Well I wasn't exactly expecting a response. I didn't mean to make it sound like a conspiracy theory. But it sounds like it is. My point wasn't whether it is better than chemo or not. My point was that it hasn't been published at all! You would think that a study showing how THC acts to kill cancer cells without damaging any other cells would be news worthy.

Also Cannabis is still illegal for ANY medical use in Australia. But I wasn't arguing about that either. Merely the fact that this study hasn't been published.

Thanks for your time,