Cancer research and cannabis

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Jan-11-2008 11:47 <h1 class="title">Breakthrough Discovered in Medical Marijuana Cancer Treatment</h1> Tim King Salem-News.com Researchers learned that cannabinoids have been associated with anti-carcinogenic effects, which are responsible in preventing or delaying the development of cancer.

 

http://www.salem-news.com/stimg/january112008/marijuana_leaf330.jpg

Salem-News.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - A new study reveals that Medical Marijuana can be an effective treatment for cancer, that is the word announced by doctors in Germany who concluded that this clarification of the mechanism of cannabinoid action may help investigators to further explore their therapeutic benefit.

 

The medical article was originally published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute Advance Access and online on December 25th 2007.

 

Cancer cells that were treated with combinations of cannabinoids, antagonists of cannabinoid receptors, and small interfering ribo nucleic acid or 'siRNA' to tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1) were assessed for invasiveness, protein expression, and activation of signal transduction pathways.

 

The biggest contribution of this breakthrough discovery, is that the expression of TIMP-1 was shown to be stimulated by cannabinoid receptor activation and to mediate the anti-invasive effect of cannabinoids.

 

In other words, they learned that treatment with cannabinoids, one of the active ingredients of the medicinal side of marijuana, has been shown to reduce the invasiveness of cancer cells. Prior to now the cellular mechanisms underlying this effect were unclear and the relevance of the findings to the behavior of tumor cells in vivo remains to be determined.

 

It is already known that marijuana can stimulate the appetite of patients, but researchers have learned that cannabinoids, in addition to having palliative benefits in cancer therapy, have been associated with anti-carcinogenic effects, which are responsible in preventing or delaying the development of cancer.

 

"Although the anti-proliferative activities of cannabinoids have been intensively investigated, little is known about their effects on tumor invasion," the article stated.

 

Method

 

In this now completed round of research, Matrigel-coated and uncoated Boyden chambers were used to quantify invasiveness and migration, respectively, of human cervical cancer 'HeLa' cells that had been treated with cannabinoids.

 

 

The stable anandamide analog R(+)-methanandamide 'MA' and the phytocannabinoid 9-tetrahydrocannabinol 'THC' in the presence or absence of antagonists of the CB1 or CB2 cannabinoid receptors or of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) or inhibitors of p38 or p42/44 mitogen–activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways.

 

A method known as 'reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction' and immunoblotting were used to assess the influence of cannabinoids on the expression of matrix metalloproteinases and endogenous tissue inhibitors. The role of TIMP-1 in the anti-invasive action of cannabinoids was analyzed by transfecting HeLa, human cervical carcinoma, or human lung carcinoma cells cells with siRNA targeting TIMP-1.

 

They say all statistical tests were two-sided.

 

Results

 

Without modifying migration, MA and THC caused a time and concentration-dependent suppression of HeLa cell invasion through Matrigel that was accompanied by increased expression of TIMP-1.

 

At the lowest concentrations tested, MA and THC led to a decrease in cell invasion.

 

"The stimulation of TIMP-1 expression and suppression of cell invasion were reversed by pretreatment of cells with antagonists to CB1 or CB2 receptors, with inhibitors of MAPKs, or, in the case of MA, with an antagonist to TRPV1. Knockdown of cannabinoid-induced TIMP-1 expression by siRNA led to a reversal of the cannabinoid-elicited decrease in tumor cell invasiveness in HeLa, A549, and C33A cells."

 

The researchers concluded that increased expression of TIMP-1 mediates an anti-invasive effect of cannabinoids. That means that in our future, cannabinoids may offer a therapeutic option in the treatment of highly invasive cancers.

 

Special thanks to the JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and to Burkhard Hinz, PhD, Institute of Toxicology and Pharmacology, University of Rostock and the affiliation of authors: Institute of Toxicology and Pharmacology, University of Rostock in Rostock, Germany.

 

The original report published by Oxford University Press was titled, "Inhibition of Cancer Cell Invasion by Cannabinoids via Increased Expression of Tissue Inhibitor of Matrix Metalloproteinases-1Robert Ramer, Burkhard Hinz."

 

 

 

 

 

This topic I will try to post into as much information as possible, everyone who finds yet more please post it here, Lets really gather the mountain of information, to bury Nicola Roxon and the other prohibitionists, up to their necks in genuine science, in total opposition to their statistics.

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Extra THC is the answer

 

This one you really need to go see on the site,

 

Your Brain On Bliss

All about cannabinoids and American drug policy.

 

Apr 2 2009

Extra: THC, the main cannabis cannabinoid kills brain cancer, but still has no medical value.

 

Posted by Don Fitch under anandamide, cannabinoids, drug policy

 

New Spanish research confirms earlier studies that THC, the main cannabinoid in cannabis (marijuana) kills brain cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact. Researchers in Spain’s Complutense University have for years been studying the anti-cancer properties of cannabis. They have published dozens of papers on how the cannabinoids from the cannabis plant, and also those made by our own bodies, can help prevent and treat different types of cancer.

 

* Among the Spanish researchers’ most impressive results have been in attacking some of the fastest-growing and most fatal cancers, those of the brain. Gliomas, or recurrent glioblastoma multiforme, often kill quickly. These were they type studied in the Spanish research. Treatment with THC for a month caused the glioma cells to die while normal brain cells thrived.

 

American universities and research organizations over the past 30 years of the drug war have obeyed an anti-cannabis political correctness. A generation of medical research on cannabinoids has been lost in the USA. Clear indicators of potential anti-cancer properties of cannabis surfaced in research out of the Virginia Medical College in 1974. These findings were scarcely reported in the press, ignored by researchers and discouraged by the government. Tragically, cannabinoid anti-cancer research soon disappeared, at least in the USA.

 

* Luckily researchers in other parts of the world were less guided by doctrine and more by science, so research in places such as Madrid, Salerno and, especially, Jerusalem, continued. Actually, major anti-cancer findings of cannabis were reported by this same Spanish university back in 2000, but again essentially ignored by the American press. Even today’s news may suffer the same fate.

 

The property of THC to kill brain cancer cells contrasts totally with the DEA’s Schedule I classification of the drug, claiming it has no medical uses.

 

* Surely this is enough evidence alone to end the cruel charade that cannabis is without medical value.

* Surely cannabis, THC and all the plant cannabinoids can be down scheduled to Schedule V without delay.

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Complete study check this one out

 

First published April 1, 2009

Received for publication November 3, 2008, and accepted in revised form February 11, 2009.

 

Autophagy can promote cell survival or cell death, but the molecular basis underlying its dual role in cancer remains obscure. Here we demonstrate that Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component of marijuana, induces human glioma cell death through stimulation of autophagy. Our data indicate that THC induced ceramide accumulation and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α (eIF2α) phosphorylation and thereby activated an ER stress response that promoted autophagy via tribbles homolog 3–dependent (TRB3-dependent) inhibition of the Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) axis. We also showed that autophagy is upstream of apoptosis in cannabinoid-induced human and mouse cancer cell death and that activation of this pathway was necessary for the antitumor action of cannabinoids in vivo. These findings describe a mechanism by which THC can promote the autophagic death of human and mouse cancer cells and provide evidence that cannabinoid administration may be an effective therapeutic strategy for targeting human cancers.

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Full text

 

Cannabinoids induce cancer cell proliferation via tumor necrosis factor alpha-converting enzyme (TACE/ADAM17)-mediated transactivation of the epidermal growth factor receptor.

by: S Hart, OM Fischer, A Ullrich

Cancer research, Vol. 64, No. 6. (15 March 2004), pp. 1943-1950.

 

X Abstract

 

Cannabinoids, the active components of marijuana and their endogenous counterparts were reported as useful analgetic agents to accompany primary cancer treatment by preventing nausea, vomiting, and pain and by stimulating appetite. Moreover, they have been shown to inhibit cell growth and to induce apoptosis in tumor cells. Here, we demonstrate that anandamide, Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), HU-210, and Win55,212-2 promote mitogenic kinase signaling in cancer cells. Treatment of the glioblastoma cell line U373-MG and the lung carcinoma cell line NCI-H292 with nanomolar concentrations of THC led to accelerated cell proliferation that was completely dependent on metalloprotease and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activity. EGFR signal transactivation was identified as the mechanistic link between cannabinoid receptors and the activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinases extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 as well as prosurvival protein kinase B (Akt/PKB) signaling. Depending on the cellular context, signal cross-communication was mediated by shedding of proAmphiregulin (proAR) and/or proHeparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor (proHB-EGF) by tumor necrosis factor alpha converting enzyme (TACE/ADAM17). Taken together, our data show that concentrations of THC comparable with those detected in the serum of patients after THC administration accelerate proliferation of cancer cells instead of apoptosis and thereby contribute to cancer progression in patients.

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Too much to post, go to site

 

This has so much information I simply could not put it all on here, go check this one out it has a great number of genuine studies and a number of videos

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one here, only abstract though. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14570037?dopt=Abstract

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Link to site

Who could imagine that cannabis might one day offer hope as a cure for cancer? The United States government, that’s who.

 

For the past 30 years, U.S. officials have willfully ignored clinical research indicating that marijuana can inhibit the growth of certain type of malignant tumors. However, the recent publication of a trio of clinical studies and a pair of scientific reviews have effectively blown the lid off "Cancergate," and revealed that pot’s medical value may be far greater than ever presumed.

 

THE EMERGING EVIDENCE

 

Last year, five scientific journals published prominent articles trumpeting cannabinoids (compounds in marijuana) as potential anti-cancer agents.

 

These include:

 

* Clinical trial data published in January 2003 issue of the Journal of the American Society of Clinical Investigation that found cannabinoids significantly inhibit skin tumor growth in mice. Investigators of the study concluded, "The present data indicate that local cannabinoids administration may constitute an alternative therapeutic approach for the treatment of non-melanoma skin cancer."

* Clinical trial data published in the March 2003 issue of The FASEB Journal that found that the "local administration of a non-psychoactive cannabinoid inhibits angiogenesis (tissue growth) of malignant gliomas (brain tumors)."

* A clinical review in the October 2003 issue of the prestigious journal Nature Reviews Cancer that concluded that cannabinoids’ "favorable drug safety profile" and proven ability to inhibit tumor growth make them desirable agents in the treatment of cancer. According to the review’s author, tumors inhibited by cannabinoids include: lung carcinoma, glioma, thyroid epithelioma, lymphoma/leukemia, skin carcinoma, uterus carcinoma, breast carcinoma, prostate carcinoma, and neuroblastoma (a malignant tumor originating in the autonomic nervous system or the adrenal medulla and occurring chiefly in infants and young children).

* Clinical trial data published in the November 2003 issue of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics that found the administration of the cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) inhibits the growth of human glioma cells both in vitro (e.g., a petri dish) and in animals in a dose-dependent manner. Investigators concluded, "Non-psychoactive CBD produce a significant antitumor activity both in vitro and in vivo, thus suggesting a possible application of CBD as an antineoplastic agent (something which prevents the growth of malignant cells.)"

* And finally, a clinical review in the December 2003 issue of the journal Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets that summarized "the demonstrated antitumor actions of cannabinoids," and elaborated on "possible avenues for the future development of cannabinoids as antitumor agents."

 

AND SUBSEQUENT MEDIA BLACKOUT

 

Despite these stunning findings, media coverage of them in North America has been virtually non-existent. As noted by Richard Cowan, editor of the website MarijuanaNews.com, "The New York Times, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times all ignored this story, even though its newsworthiness is indisputable: a benign substance occurring in nature destroys deadly brain tumors."

 

Why the media blackout? For starters, all of these studies were conducted overseas. And secondly, not one of them has been acknowledged by the U.S. government.

 

U.S. KNEW IN ’74... AND AGAIN IN ’96!

 

This wasn’t always the case. In fact, the first ever 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, immortalized in an August 18, 1974 Washington Post newspaper feature, were 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."

 

Despite these favorable preliminary findings, U.S. government officials banished the study, and refused to fund any follow up research until conducting a similar – though secret – study in the mid-1990s. That study, conducted by the U.S. National Toxicology Program to the tune of $2 million concluded that mice and rats administered high doses of THC over long periods had greater protection against malignant tumors than untreated controls. However, rather than publicize their findings, government researchers shelved the results – which only became public one year later after a draft copy of its findings were leaked in 1997 to the journal AIDS Treatment News, which in turn forwarded the story to the national media.

 

Nevertheless, in the nearly eight years since the completion of the National Toxicology trial, the U.S. government has yet to fund a single additional study examining pot’s potential as an anti-cancer agent.

 

SCIENCE IGNORED NO MORE

 

Fortunately, researchers at Madrid, Spain’s Complutense University, School of Biology have generously picked up where U.S. researchers so abruptly left off. In 1998, the research team – led by investigator Manuel Guzman – discovered that THC can selectively induce program cell death in brain tumor cells without negatively impacting the surrounding healthy cells. Then in 2000, Guzman’s team reported in the journal Nature Medicine that injections of synthetic THC eradicated malignant gliomas (brain tumors) in one-third of treated rats, and prolonged life in another third by six weeks. A commentary to the study noted that the results were the first to convincingly demonstrate that cannabis-based treatments may successfully combat cancer.

 

Today, Guzman believes that enough favorable clinical evidence exists supporting pot’s anti-cancer properties to warrant clinical trials in humans. "The scientific community has gained substantial knowledge of the palliative and anti-tumor actions of cannabinoids during the past few years," Guzman wrote in the October 2003 issue of Nature Reviews Cancer. "Anti-tumor compounds should selectively affect tumor cells [and] it seems that cannabinoids can do this, as they kill [malignant] tumor cells but do not affect their non-transformed counterparts and might even protect them from cell death. ... As cannabinoids are relatively safe compounds, it would be desirable that clinical trials using cannabinoids ... could accompany [ongoing] laboratory studies to allow us to use these compounds in the treatment of cancer." Guzman concludes the article by noting that the Spanish Ministry of Health recently approved a human clinical trial – the first ever – aimed at investigating the effects of intracranially administered THC on the life expectancy of volunteers suffering from malignant brain tumors.

 

"Cannabinoid research continues to show tremendous potential in the treatment of cancer," summarizes University of Southern California professor Mitch Earleywine, author of the book Understanding Marijuana: A New Look at the Scientific Evidence. However, he laments that the "vast majority of this work originates outside the United States, often in countries that lack our economic and scientific advantages. Let’s hope that our drug policy won’t stymie the battle against the second leading cause of death in America."

 

Indeed. Let’s not add a potential treatment for cancer to the ever-growing list of victims of pot prohibition.

 

August 17, 2004

 

Paul Armentano [send him mail] is the senior policy analyst for the NORML Foundation in Washington, DC.

 

Copyright © 2004 LewRockwell.com

 

OK that's it for me for a while, now I need to look for somewhere to live and pack this house

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http://medicalmarijuanapatient.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65

 

Massive list of studies

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The complete list here

 

Granny Storm Crow's Master List

 

Guys this is perhaps the biggest list of studies clearly laid out for the dummies you have to deal with, not to mention us too.

 

I don't think there is any illness this list does not cover and all the studies are there.

 

Send this list to every politician, anti drug lobby and web site and we perhaps should send it to all the media.

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Source

 

Effects of frequent marijuana use on brain tissue volume and composition

 

by Robert I. Block et al, NeuroReport, Vol. 11, Issue 3, pp 491-496

 

RECEIVED: 10 November 1999

 

ACCEPTED: 3 December 1999

 

AUTHOR: Robert I. Block*, Daniel S. O'Leary~, James C. Ehrhardt±, Jean C. Augustinack§, M. M. Ghoneim¶, Stephan Arndt**, James A. Hall~~

 

ADDRESS: *Department of Anesthesia, Westlawn Building, Room 5140, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1100, USA; ~Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1100, USA; ±Department of Radiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1100, USA; §Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1100, USA; ¶Department of Anesthesia, Westlawn Building, Room 5140, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1100, USA; **Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1100, USA; ~~School of Social Work, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1100, USA

 

To investigate CNS effects of frequent marijuana use, brain tissue volume and composition were measured using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 18 current, frequent, young adult marijuana users and 13 comparable, non-using controls. Automated image analysis techniques were used to measure global and regional brain volumes, including, for most regions, separate measures of gray and white matter. The marijuana users showed no evidence of cerebral atrophy or global or regional changes in tissue volumes. Volumes of ventricular CSF were not higher in marijuana users than controls, but were, in fact, lower. There were no clinically significant abnormalities in any subject's MRI. Sex differences were detected in several global volume measures. NeuroReport 11:491-496 © 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

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To investigate CNS effects of frequent marijuana use, brain tissue volume and composition were measured using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 18 current, frequent, young adult marijuana users and 13 comparable, non-using controls. Automated image analysis techniques were used to measure global and regional brain volumes, including, for most regions, separate measures of gray and white matter. The marijuana users showed no evidence of cerebral atrophy or global or regional changes in tissue volumes. Volumes of ventricular CSF were not higher in marijuana users than controls, but were, in fact, lower. There were no clinically significant abnormalities in any subject's MRI. Sex differences were detected in several global volume measures. NeuroReport 11:491-496 © 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

 

I don't get it. They're saying Cannabis use lowers CSF volume? :S

 

Also the link you posted was wrong. Not sure why you reposted the link I already posted the page before

Here's the new version, much easier to navigate, http://cannalink.org/granny/