For
years, the prevailing thought was that medical marijuana only eases a
person’s symptoms — pain, nausea, insomnia — but did nothing for the
actual root causes of a person’s illness.
A new study may suggest
otherwise, proving wrong those skeptical about the familiar rallying cry
of “cannabis cures cancer.” According to the October issue of Anticancer Research,
certain non-psychoactive cannabinoids can actually kill leukemia cells.
The research showed “dramatic reductions in cell viability” and “caused
a simultaneous arrest at all phases of the cell cycle,” which should
open up the path for clinical trials on new cannabis-based medications
to begin very soon.
From the US News and World Report:
Study author Wai Liu, an oncologist at the University of London’s St. George’s medical school, told U.S. News the chemicals displayed “potent anti-cancer activity” and, significantly, “target and switch off” pathways that allow cancers to grow.
“There’s quite a lot of cancers that should respond quite nicely to these cannabis agents,” Liu said. If you talk about a drug company that spent billions of pounds trying to develop these new drugs that target these pathways, cannabis does exactly the same thing — or certain elements of cannabis compounds do exactly the same thing — so you have something that is naturally produced which impacts the same pathways that these fantastic drugs that cost billions also work on.”
Liu stresses that his research focused on chemicals that would not intoxicate patients.
While that last part may not be so much fun, the results of this study are incredibly promising in man’s battle against cancer.
Especially as Liu’s study isn’t alone in searching out the benefits of cannabinoids in cancer patients. Just last year, the National Cancer Institute funded research in this realm and determined that “studies in mice and rats have shows that cannabinoids may inhibit tumor growth by causing cell death, blocking cell growth and blocking the development of blood vessels needed by tumors to grow.”
Finally though, Liu warns that smoking weed is not the cure so many might prophesize: “I wouldn’t say ‘smoke marijuana to fight leukemia’ only because we don’t know how these different chemicals react with each other inside the patient who smokes it.”
Medicine derived from these studies might be available to the British market as early as late next year.
Study author Wai Liu, an oncologist at the University of London’s St. George’s medical school, told U.S. News the chemicals displayed “potent anti-cancer activity” and, significantly, “target and switch off” pathways that allow cancers to grow.
“There’s quite a lot of cancers that should respond quite nicely to these cannabis agents,” Liu said. If you talk about a drug company that spent billions of pounds trying to develop these new drugs that target these pathways, cannabis does exactly the same thing — or certain elements of cannabis compounds do exactly the same thing — so you have something that is naturally produced which impacts the same pathways that these fantastic drugs that cost billions also work on.”
Liu stresses that his research focused on chemicals that would not intoxicate patients.
While that last part may not be so much fun, the results of this study are incredibly promising in man’s battle against cancer.
Especially as Liu’s study isn’t alone in searching out the benefits of cannabinoids in cancer patients. Just last year, the National Cancer Institute funded research in this realm and determined that “studies in mice and rats have shows that cannabinoids may inhibit tumor growth by causing cell death, blocking cell growth and blocking the development of blood vessels needed by tumors to grow.”
Finally though, Liu warns that smoking weed is not the cure so many might prophesize: “I wouldn’t say ‘smoke marijuana to fight leukemia’ only because we don’t know how these different chemicals react with each other inside the patient who smokes it.”
Medicine derived from these studies might be available to the British market as early as late next year.
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