Studies

Two Studies Find that Cannabis Shrinks Tumors

Posted September 11, 2008

Researchers in Madrid at Complutense University published an article in the March 2000 issue of Nature Medicine of their findings that THC showed anti-tumor properties. They first injected the brains of 45 rats with cancer cells, which produced brain tumors that they confirmed with magnetic resonance imaging. They injected 15 of the rats with THC and 15 with a synthetic compound similar to THC (Win-55,212-2), while the remaining 15 were left untreated. All of the untreated rats died 12-18 after the cancer inoculation. The treatment was ineffective in three of the rats, while nine of the rats treated with THC lived 19-35 days and the tumors were completely eradicated in three. The rats treated with the synthetic compound displayed similar results.

This is actually not the first time that THC has shown anti-tumor activity. Researchers at the Medical College of Virginia were funded by the National Institute of Health in 1974 to find negative effects of cannabis on the immune system. The results, however, were that THC slowed the growth of lung, breast and a virus-induced leukemia in mice. The study was quickly shut down and in 1976 President Gerald Ford put an end to all public cannabis research and gave exclusive research rights to major pharmaceutical companies. Only one paper ever reported on this study, the Washington Post, on August 18, 1974. The headline was “Cancer Curb Studied” and partially read:

“The active chemical agent in marijuana curbs the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice and may also suppress the immunity reaction that causes rejection of organ transplants, a Medical College of Virginia team has discovered. The researchers found that 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.”


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