Italy - Marijuana Compounds Have "Palliative" And "Curative" Effects On Cancer

[chillinwill]

Salerno, Italy: Naturally occurring compounds in cannabis possess anti-tumor properties and present a novel approach for cancer treatment, according to a scientific review published in the February issue of the journal Best Practice & Research: Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Investigators at the University of Salerno in Italy report that cannabinoids limit cancer cell proliferation and induce tumor-selective cell death.

Cannabinoids inhibit "tumor growth and migration, angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels to cancerous tumors), [and] metastasis (the transfer of malignant cells from one site to another)," authors concluded. "Emerging evidence suggests that agonists of cannabinoid receptors ... may offer a novel strategy to treat cancer."

A 2008 review in the journal Cancer Research reported that the administration of cannabinoids halts the spread of a wide range of cancers, including brain cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer, pancreatic cancer, and lymphoma.

To date, only one clinical trial assessing the use of cannabinoids as anti-cancer agents has been conducted. That trial reported that THC administration decreases recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) tumor growth in patients afflicted with the disease.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org

Full text of the study, "Use of cannabinoid receptor agonists in cancer therapy as palliative and curative agents," appears in the journal Best Practice & Research: Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Additional information on the anti-cancer properties of cannabinoids appears online at:
http://norml.org//index.cfm?Group_ID=7008

April 2, 2009
Salerno, Italy
NORML News
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7842

Reputation Comments on this post:

Fascinating stuff- keep up the great work.

[xctico]

So, u r the gov, u have 2 types of cigarrets.
1 of them gives ppl cancer.
1 takes cancer away.

Which 1 do you make illegal?




...guvernment ...evil.

[everytingirie]

Originally Posted by xctico

So, u r the gov, u have 2 types of cigarrets.
1 of them gives ppl cancer.
1 takes cancer away.

Which 1 do you make illegal?




...guvernment ...evil.

Population control! Of course, it all makes perfect sense now.

But in all seriousness, I saw this story on the news the other day. It could mean great things for medical marijuana (I hope.). With any luck, studies like this will lead to the government allowing further research into marijuana and the diseases it can treat. An equally great (greater) accomplishment would be for the government to wise up and legalize.

[Greenport]

We still can't prove that marijuana does or doesn't cause cancer. We know that THC is anticarcinogenic, but one must remember that the combustion of any plant material can still produce benzopyrene and potentially other carcinogens as well.

With a vaporizer, these carcinogenic pyrolysis products are more likely to be absent, which makes that a much safer way to smoke. Unfortunately, most people do not use vaporizers. This makes the debate about marijuana's carcinogenicity a tough subject. There's so much news regarding both sides "marijuana causes cancer" versus "marijuana prevents cancer" that it's impossible to come up with a reasonable answer right now.

We need more, legitimate studies to be taken before coming to a complete conclusion. SwiM's truck believes that it is no more carcinogenic than consuming burnt toast - sure once or twice wont hurt swiY, but if they were to eat that every day then yeah it could probably potentially have an effect on cancer rates in one's body.

Yes, tobacco is much much much much worse. But don't assume that marijuana smoking will never give anybody cancer. It's not likely to and can indeed have anticarcinogenic effects (several compounds do), but the answer lies somewhere in the middle guys, don't fool yourselves into smoking tons upon tons of weed and thinking that there will never be any consequences from it.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Sound, un-biased information.