Marijuana and Cancer

By Suzanne Wills, Drug Policy Chair

September, 2009

In 1974, federally funded researchers at the Medical College of Virginia discovered that marijuana's primary cannabinoid, Tetrahydrocannabinol (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."  The government refused to fund a follow up study until the mid-1990s.  That study, conducted by the US National Toxicology Program at a cost of $2 million, concluded that lab rats administered high doses of THC over long periods experienced greater protection against malignant tumors than untreated controls.

In 1998, researchers at Complutense University in Madrid discovered that THC can cause cell death in brain tumor cells without impacting the surrounding healthy cells. In 2000, they reported that injections of synthetic THC eradicated malignant brain tumors in one-third of treated rats and prolonged life in another third.  In 2006, they reported that THC treatment was associated with reduced tumor cell proliferation in human brain tumor patients and demonstrated significant anti-proliferative activity on human brain tumor growth in culture.  Researchers at the University of Milan in Naples, Italy, had similar results.

Other investigators have published pre-clinical findings demonstrating that cannabinoids may play a role in inhibiting cell growth of colectoral cancer (University of Bristol, UK), skin carcinoma (Complutense University), breast cancer (California Pacific Medical Center), and prostate cancer (University of Wisconsin).

Investigators from Brown University, Boston University, Louisiana State University and the University of Minnesota studied patients diagnosed with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.  They reported, "After adjusting for potential confounders (including smoking and alcohol drinking), 10 to 20 years of marijuana use was associated with a significantly reduced risk of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNDCC)."

Never heard of these studies?  That is not surprising. The Drug Enforcement Administration includes marijuana in Schedule 1 which means, “The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”   The media rarely reports findings to the contrary.

 

Primary source:  Cannabinoids As Cancer Hope by Paul Armentano, NORML