--- In cancercure@egroups.com,

"V Gammill" <ygammil1@s...> wrote:





Subject: Cancer and THC


Pot Shrinks Tumors; Government Knew in '74
Raymond Cushing, AlterNet
May 31, 2000
Viewed on June 6, 2000

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The term medical marijuana took on dramatic new meaning in February
when researchers in Madrid announced they had destroyed incurable
brain cancer tumors in rats by injecting them with THC, the active
ingredient in cannabis.


The Madrid study marks only the second time that THC has been
administered to tumor-bearing animals; the first was a Virginia
investigation 26 years ago. In both studies, the THC shrank or
destroyed tumors in a majority of the test subjects.


Most Americans don't know anything about the Madrid discovery.
Virtually no U.S. newspapers carried the story, which ran only once
on the AP and UPI news wires, on Feb. 29.


The ominous part is that this isn't the first time scientists have
discovered that THC shrinks tumors. In 1974 researchers at the
Medical College of Virginia, who had been funded by the National
Institute of Health to find evidence that marijuana damages the
immune system, found instead that THC slowed the growth of three
kinds of cancer in mice -- lung and breast cancer, and a virus-
induced leukemia.


The DEA quickly shut down the Virginia study and all further
cannabis/tumor research, according to Jack Herer, who reports on the
events in his book, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes." In 1976 President
Gerald Ford put an end to all public cannabis research and granted
exclusive research rights to major pharmaceutical companies, who set
out -- unsuccessfully -- to develop synthetic forms of THC that would
deliver all the medical benefits without the "high."


The Madrid researchers reported in the March issue of "Nature
Medicine" that they injected the brains of 45 rats with cancer cells,
producing tumors whose presence they confirmed through magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI). On the 12th day they injected 15 of the rats
with THC and 15 with Win-55,212-2 a synthetic compound similar to
THC.


"All the rats left untreated uniformly died 12-18 days after glioma
(brain cancer) cell inoculation ... Cannabinoid (THC)-treated rats
survived significantly longer than control rats. THC administration
was ineffective in three rats, which died by days 16-18. Nine of the
THC-treated rats surpassed the time of death of untreated rats, and
survived up to 19-35 days. Moreover, the tumor was completely
eradicated in three of the treated rats." The rats treated with Win-
55,212-2 showed similar results.


The Spanish researchers, led by Dr. Manuel Guzman of Complutense
University, also irrigated healthy rats' brains with large doses of
THC for seven days, to test for harmful biochemical or neurological
effects. They found none.


"Careful MRI analysis of all those tumor-free rats showed no sign of
damage related to necrosis, edema, infection or trauma ... We also
examined other potential side effects of cannabinoid administration.
In both tumor-free and tumor-bearing rats, cannabinoid administration
induced no substantial change in behavioral parameters such as motor
coordination or physical activity. Food and water intake as well as
body weight gain were unaffected during and after cannabinoid
delivery. Likewise, the general hematological profiles of cannabinoid-
treated rats were normal. Thus, neither biochemical parameters nor
markers of tissue damage changed substantially during the 7-day
delivery period or for at least 2 months after cannabinoid treatment
ended."


Guzman's investigation is the only time since the 1974 Virginia study
that THC has been administered to live tumor-bearing animals. (The
Spanish researchers cite a 1998 study in which cannabinoids inhibited
breast cancer cell proliferation, but that was a "petri dish"
experiment that didn't involve live subjects.)


In an email interview for this story, the Madrid researcher said he
had heard of the Virginia study, but had never been able to locate
literature on it. Hence, the Nature Medicine article characterizes
the new study as the first on tumor-laden animals and doesn't cite
the 1974 Virginia investigation.


"I am aware of the existence of that research. In fact I have
attempted many times to obtain the journal article on the original
investigation by these people, but it has proven impossible." Guzman
said.


In 1983 the Reagan/Bush Administration tried to persuade American
universities and researchers to destroy all 1966-76 cannabis research
work, including compendiums in libraries, reports Jack Herer, who
states, "We know that large amounts of information have since
disappeared."


Guzman provided the title of the work -- "Antineoplastic activity of
cannabinoids," an article in a 1975 Journal of the National Cancer
Institute -- and this writer obtained a copy at the UC medical school
library in Davis and faxed it to Madrid.


The summary of the Virginia study begins, "Lewis lung adenocarcinoma
growth was retarded by the oral administration of
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabinol (CBN)" -- two types of
cannabinoids, a family of active components in marijuana. "Mice
treated for 20 consecutive days with THC and CBN had reduced primary
tumor size."


The 1975 journal article doesn't mention breast cancer tumors, which
featured in the only newspaper story ever to appear about the 1974
study -- in the Local section of the Washington Post on August 18,
1974. Under the headline, "Cancer Curb Is Studied," it read in part:


"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."


Guzman, writing from Madrid, was eloquent in his response after this
writer faxed him the clipping from the Washington Post of a quarter
century ago. In translation, he wrote:


"It is extremely interesting to me, the hope that the project seemed
to awaken at that moment, and the sad evolution (lastimosa evolucion)
of events during the years following the discovery, until now we once
again Odraw back the veil' over the anti-tumoral power of THC, twenty-
five years later. Unfortunately, the world bumps along between such
moments of hope and long periods of intellectual castration."


News coverage of the Madrid discovery has been virtually nonexistent
in this country. The news broke quietly on Feb. 29 with a story that
ran once on the UPI wire about the Nature Medicine article. This
writer stumbled on it through a link that appeared briefly on the
Drudge Report web page. The New York Times, Washington Post and Los
Angeles Times all ignored the story, even though its newsworthiness
is indisputable:

a benign substance occurring in nature destroys deadly brain tumors.






----- Original Message -----
From: helen peterson
To: cancercure@egroups.com
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2000 8:46 AM
Subject: Re: [cancercure] brain tumor





* * <gemini_0306@h...> wrote:




A friend has been recently been diagnosed with an inoperable
brain tumor....they are gearing him up for radiation....

Stanislaw Burzynski of Texas seems to have the best success with
brain tumours, it is the route I would go. There is lots of
information about him on the webb. Let me know in the future how the
freind has made out.

Helen