http://www.iflscience.com/health-an...used-shrink-one-most-aggressive-brain-cancers Widely proscribed around the world for its recreational uses, cannabis is being used in a number of different therapeutic ways to bring relief for severe medical conditions. Products using cannabinoids, the active components of the cannabis plant, have been licensed for medical use. Sativex, for example, which contains an equal mixture of the cannabinoids tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), is already licenced as a mouth spray for multiple sclerosis and in the US, dronabinol and nabilone are commercially available for treating cancer-related side effects. Now, in a study published in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, we’ve also shown that cannabinoids could play a role in treating one of the most aggressive cancers in adults. There are more than 85 cannabinoids, which are known to bind to unique receptors in cells and which receive outside chemical signals. These receptors feed into signalling pathways, telling cells what to do. Recent studies have shown that some cannabinoids have potent anti-cancer action. For example, both THC and CBD have been shown in a number of laboratory studies to effectively induce cell death in tumour cells by modifying the faulty signalling pathways inside these cells. Depending on the cell type this can disrupt tumour growth or start to kill it. The psychoactivity associated with some cannabinoids, principally THC (which gives people a cannabis high), is also mediated via the same receptors. Because these receptors are found in the highest abundances in brain cells, it follows that brain tumours also rich in these receptors may respond best to cannabinoids. We wanted to investigate the anti-cancer effects of Sativex in glioma cells. High-grade glioma is an aggressive cancer, with very low long-term survival rates. Statistics show that just over a third (36%) of adult patients in the UK with glioma live for at least a year, while the five-year survival rate is 10%. Depending on the individual, treatment can consist of surgery, radiotherapy, and/or chemotherapy with the drug temozolomide. However, due primarily to the intricate localisation of the tumour in the brain and its invasive behaviour, these treatments remain largely unsuccessful. However, as our study showed, combining radiotherapy with cannabinoid treatment had a big effect. Finding The Right Dose We first had to perform lab tests on cells to optimise the doses of the cannabinoids, and showed that CBD and THC combined favourably. We found that to achieve a 50% kill rate of glioma cells, a dose of 14mM (millimolar – a measure of amount-of-substance concentration) of CBD or 19mM of THC would be needed if each was used singularly. However, when used in combination, the concentrations required to achieve the same magnitude of cell kill is significantly reduced to just 7mM for each. This apparent reduction in the doses of the cannabinoids, in particular THC, without a loss of overall anti-cancer action is particularly attractive as unwanted side effects are also reduced. Once we had these results, we then tested the impact of combining the cannabinoids with irradiation in mice with glioma. The efficacy of this treatment was tracked using sophisticated MRI technology – and we determined the effects on tumour growth of either CBD and THC together, irradiation, or the combination of both. The drugs were used at suboptimal doses to allow us to see if there was any improvement in the therapy from combining them. Balancing Anti-Cancer With Psychoactive In principle, patients treated with THC could experience some psychoactive activity. But the secret to successfully exploiting cannabinoids as a treatment for cancer is to balance the desired anti-cancer effects with the less desirable psychoactive effects. This is possible, as some cannabinoids seem to function independently of the receptors and so do not engage the adverse effects. CBD is one such cannabinoid. The doses of THC we selected were below the psychoactive level, but together with CBD it partnered well to give the best overall anti-cancer effect. Our results showed that the dose of irradiation we used had no dramatic effect on tumour growth, whereas CBD and THC administered together marginally reduced tumour progression. However, combining the cannabinoids with irradiation further impeded the rate at which tumour growth progressed and was virtually stagnant throughout the course of the treatment. Correspondingly, tumour sizes on the final day of the study were significantly smaller in these subjects compared with any of the others. The results are promising. There may be other applications but for now it could provide a way of breaking through glioma and saving more lives. Greater acceptance of marijuana is leading to more and more studies indicating its wide range of medical uses as well as its relatively harmless effects as a recreational drug. Marijuana opponents are finding it increasing difficult to put out their propaganda that marijuana ruins lives on a large scale and ultimately brings down society. In fact, it seems to have some serious potential to be a massive benefit for society.
Sounds like it probably shrinks the brain as well. I think we had another thread on here the other day with a report that said long-term use of mj was detrimental to the brain.
Yeah, according to the selectively snipped article posted in that thread. When the article was read in its entirety, it revealed that it also increased the connection in that part of the brain, thereby causing no detrimental effects.
Smoking is bad for your lungs, your skin, and lots of other organs of the body. Why in the world would SMOKING marijuana not be also? Of course it's bad for you: ALL smoking is.
Yeah shrinks the brain after smoking at least 3 times a day for over ten years. It's akin to saying long term use of McFlurries is detrimental to the body. . .if you eat 3 a day for 10 years.
On the brain, causing no detrimental effects on the brain. Besides, it can also be eaten or vaporized.
Well, ya'll go ahead and partake all you want. Just keep it away from the rest of us who are "high" on life and don't need a crutch.
Geez, the topic is about how marijuana is proving to be a effective treatment for cancer. One we think you'd be here celebrating another success over a terrible disease, but no, it's marijuana, so who gives a (*)(*)(*)(*) if it helps cancer patients, right?
JP, I highly doubt that those diagnosed with high-grade glioma care too much about that. If it were your child, would you not try everything possible?
Not the mention the fact that brain cancer patients aren't smoking it. They're taking sativex, a mouth spray derived from the cannabinoids (CBDs) and THC found in marijuana.
Either way, the possibilities must be explored and successes must be applauded. Patients with a terminal diagnosis will agree.
Wow, hardly a peep on this topic. Is it really this difficult for marijuana naysayers to just concede that marijuana may actually have some significant benefits for society?
Whether cannabis should be permitted has nothing whatsoever to do with its medical uses. If we did studies and found mugging someone in the street causes a 20% extension of life, it would still be coercive and wrong. I don't think cannabis use/sale/manufacture/possession is coercive, but that's the case we need to be making! [hr][/hr] That said, interesting article. I don't understand why they think the psychoactive effects are undesirable - increased appetite and pain relief is really quite desirable I'd have thought, especially in cancer patients. To each their own of course, whether it's undesirable should be up to the patient, not the state, or his/her doctors.
Absolutely true, but there are many alternative routes of administration, from vaporizing (my personal choice), or the use of cannabis' fat and alcohol soluble properties to create extracts and foods. The use of a pill is quite possible, you merely place the extract into empty capsules you can get at any health food store. The best part is: you can evaporate off the alcohol to get the concentration just right for whatever purpose you have in mind.
I understand your point, and I support marijuana legalization both for recreation and medicine. I have a prescription to help alleviate pain associated with my 14 years trying to beat cancer, but I also find it enjoyable overall. Unfortunately for me, opiate-based drugs have too many negative side effects (nausea, constipation, not to mention the terrible withdrawal) to help me. The only side effects from marijauna that I feel are giggling and munchies. [HR][/HR] That said, interesting article. I don't understand why they think the psychoactive effects are undesirable - increased appetite and pain relief is really quite desirable I'd have thought, especially in cancer patients. To each their own of course, whether it's undesirable should be up to the patient, not the state, or his/her doctors.[/QUOTE]
There are indeed clinical uses for (extracts/elements of) cannabis but then there are clinical uses for opiates, radioactive isotopes and cutting people open and taking bits out too. The clinical uses should be treated entirely separately to the question of recreational use and indeed it's attempts like this to tie the former to the latter which does much of the harm to the prospects of proper clinical studies of cannabis. Just because penicillin has great clinical benefits doesn't mean we should make all our sandwiches with mouldy bread.
I'm not trying to tie anything together. I'm just pointing out that more and more studies are concluding that marijuana can be both an effective medicine and a relatively harmless recreational drug. There's clinical uses for alcohol, too.
You are, just by mentioning recreational use when discussing an article about clinical use. They're entirely separate topics so there is absolutely no valid reason to throw in that reference. The invalid reason would be to try to attach some additional legitimacy to recreational use of the drug as a result of the clinical uses.
Marijuana tears up your lungs more than tobacco use though. They both carry about the same number of carcinogens in their smoke, but people generally quickly inhale and exhale tobacco smoke, while pot abusers hold the smoke in their lungs longer and take bigger hits to get a bigger high, which allows the smoke to do more damage to their lungs in the long run. Besides, breathing in smoke is never "harmless", bro.
