Cannabinols and Cancer Research

Given the recent disasters in Japan, with reason to expect a dramatic increase in the cancer rate worldwide, including in Saskatchewan, I would like to try to direct the public to the various scientific studies demonstrating the cancer fighting effects of various cannabinoids.

This article focuses on cancer studies, for information on the many many other known medicinal uses, visit NORML's Medical Use page: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5441

The first article I would like you to read can be found at the Journal of Clinical Investigation:

http://www.jci.org/articles/view/37948

It is entitled: Cannabinoid action induces autophagy-mediated cell death through stimulation of ER stress in human glioma cells It was written by:

María Salazar1,2, Arkaitz Carracedo1, Íñigo J. Salanueva1, Sonia Hernández-Tiedra1, Mar Lorente1,2, Ainara Egia1, Patricia Vázquez3, Cristina Blázquez1,2, Sofía Torres1, Stephane García4, Jonathan Nowak4, Gian María Fimia5, Mauro Piacentini5, Francesco Cecconi6, Pier Paolo Pandolfi7, Luis González-Feria8, Juan L. Iovanna4, Manuel Guzmán1,2, Patricia Boya3 and Guillermo Velasco1,2

1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I, School of Biology, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain.

2Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Madrid, Spain.

33D Lab (Development, Differentiation, and Degeneration), Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiopathology, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain.

4INSERM U624, Campus de Luminy, Marseille, France. 5National Institute for Infectious Diseases, IRCCS “L. Spallanzani,” Rome, Italy.

6Laboratory of Molecular Neuroembryology, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia and Department of Biology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata,” Rome, Italy.

7Cancer Genetics Program, Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center and Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 8Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital, Tenerife, Spain.

Another one to read, entitled Cannabinoids: potential anticancer agents written by Manuel Guzmán of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I, School of Biology, Complutense University, 28040 Madrid, Spain. can be found at:

http://www.nature.com/nrc/journal/v3/n10/abs/nrc1188.html

Another study should be of interest to people at risk for prostate cancer: Inhibition of human tumour prostate PC-3 cell growth by cannabinoids R(+)-Methanandamide and JWH-015: Involvement of CB2

N Olea-Herrero1, D Vara1, S Malagarie-Cazenave1 and I Díaz-Laviada1

1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, 28871 Madrid, Spain

The complete study can be found at:

British Journal Of Cancer, http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v101/n6/full/6605248a.html

....and another landmark cancer study shows:

Delta(9)-Tetrahydrocannabinol inhibits epithelial growth factor-induced lung cancer cell migration in vitro as well as its growth and metastasis in vivo

Preet A, Ganju RK, Groopman JE

Delta(9)-Tetrahydrocannabinol inhibits epithelial growth factor-induced lung cancer cell migration in vitro as well as its growth and metastasis in vivo. [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
Oncogene 2007 Jul 9.

There's another major study, done by a group of researches in South Carolina, called Cannabidiol-induced apoptosis in human leukemia cells: A novel role of cannabidiol in the regulation of p22phox and Nox4 expression. (McKallip RJ, Jia W, Schlomer J, Warren JW, Nagarkatti PS, Nagarkatti M. Source Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, University of South Carolina School of Medicine) That study can be found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16754784

There's also an excellent article on Brain cancer from Scientific American: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=marijuana-extract-fights

...and there's a lot more, in fact, according to Dr. Hanus at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, says "Research on the chemistry and pharmacology of cannabinoids and endocannabinoids has reached enormous proportions, with approximately 15,000 articles on Cannabis sativa L. and cannabinoids and over 2,000 articles on endocannabinoids." . This quote was taken from his article "Pharmacological and therapeutic secrets of plant and brain (endo)cannabinoids" which can be found at the following url:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18777572

There are also plenty more listed at the Calgary Medical Marijuana Club website: http://www.calgarycmmc.com/cancerlung.htm