A study published in the July 2002 edition of the medical journal Blood found that THC and some other cannabinoids produced “programmed cell death” in different varieties of human leukemia and lymphoma cell lines, thereby destroying the cancerous cells but leaving other cells unharmed.
This reaffirms results by researchers at Madrid’s Complutense University, who destroyed otherwise uncurable brain cancer tumors in rats by injecting them with THC (CC#25, THC destroys brain cancers). Their study was published in the March 2000 issue of Nature Medicine. This ground-breaking research received almost no media attention, and has not been pursued as the researchers couldn’t get further funding (CC#29, No funding for THC tumor research).
The lack of funding is typical of how such research is usually not followed up. For example, a 1974 study by researchers at the Medical College of Virginia, funded by the US National Institute of Health, found that THC slowed the growth of lung cancer, breast cancer and virus-induced leukemia in rats.
The 1974 study, titled “Antineoplastic activity of cannabinoids,” appeared in a 1975 edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Yet despite their promising results, no further research was made, and the study has essentially disappeared from the scientific literature.
Similarly, a 1994 study, which documented that THC may protect against malignant cancers, was also buried by the US government. The $2 million study, funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services’ national toxicology program, sought to show that large doses of THC produced cancer. Instead, researchers found that massive doses of THC retarded certain types of stomach cancer in rats. The rats given THC lived longer than their non-exposed counterparts.
The study was unpublished and the results hidden for almost three years, until it was leaked to AIDS Treatment News in 1997, and the Boston Globe broke the story days later (CC#17, THC for tumors).
A study by Italian scientists, published in the July 1998 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that anandamide inhibited the growth of breast cancer cells. Anandamide is the naturally occurring body chemical which is mimicked by cannabinoids.
Other studies have shown that cannabinoids can also help prevent the death of brain cells during a stroke, head trauma and nerve gas exposure (CC#16, Marijuana protects your brain).
Click here for the abstract of the lymphoma study in the journal Blood.
Click here for a United Press article on the Madrid brain cancer study.
For an abstract of the Madrid brain cancer study, click here, the select the subject area “Cancer” and click “search”.
Click here for a mainstream media article on the suppressed 1974 study on THC and lung cancer, breast cancer and leukemia.
Click here for a mainstream media article about media bias and the suppressed 1994 US government study showing THC protects from malignant cancers.
Click here for the complete text of the 1998 study showing anandamide inhibits growth of breast cancer cells.
Click here for links to many studies on the therapeutic effects of cannabinoids.