4/12/2005 - Cannabis shrinks tumors & Cannabis in the Torah
Pot Shrinks Tumors; Government Knew in '74
By Raymond Cushing, AlterNet. Posted May 31, 2000.
In 1974 researchers learned that THC, the active chemical in marijuana,
shrank or destroyed brain tumors in test mice. But the D E A quickly
shut down the study and destroyed its results, which were never
replicated -- until now.
The
term medical marijuana took on dramatic new meaning in February, 2000
when researchers in Madrid announced they had destroyed incurable brain
tumors in rats by injecting them with THC, the active ingredient in
cannabis.
The Madrid study marks only the second time that T H C 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 major U.S. newspapers carried the story, which ran only
once on the AP and UPI news wires, on Feb. 29, 2000.
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
(M R I). 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 University of
California 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 of events during the years
following the discovery, until now we once again Œdraw 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, 2000 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.
Raymond Cushing is a journalist, musician and filmmaker. This article
was named by Project Censored as a "Top Censored Story of 2000."
The word cannabis was generally thought to be of Scythian origin, but
Benet showed that it has a much earlier origin in Semitic languages
like Hebrew, and that it appears several times throughout the Old
Testament. Benet explained that "in the original Hebrew text of the Old
Testament there are references to hemp, both as incense, which was an
integral part of religious celebration, and as an intoxicant (2)."
Benet demonstrated that the word for cannabis is kaneh-bosm, also
rendered in traditional Hebrew as kaneh or kannabus. The root kan in
this construction means "reed" or "hemp", while bosm means "aromatic".
This word appears five times in the Old Testament; in the books of
Exodus, the Song of Songs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.
The word kaneh-bosm has been mistranslated as calamus, a common marsh
plant with little monetary value that does not have the qualities or
value ascribed to kaneh-bosm. The error occurred in the oldest Greek
translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint in the third century
BC, and was repeated in the many translations that followed (3).
Cannabis in the Thora:
Kneh Boseem
(american pronounciation: knay boss aym)
EXODUS The Anointing Oil
30:22 God spoke to Moses, saying:
30:23 You must take the finest fragrances, 300 shekels of distilled
myrrh, two half portions, each consisting of 250 shekels of fragrant
cinnamon and 250 shekels of fragrant cane,
30:24 and 500 shekels of cassia, all measured by the sanctuary standard, along with a gallon of olive oil.
"Etymologist Sara Benetowa of the Institute of Anthropological Sciences
in Warsaw discovered in 1936, the connection between kaneh bosm in the
Old Testament as the original Semitic Hebrew origins of the word
cannabis.
Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1980 confirmed this information as correct. "
Oldest Woman Ever
The oldest fully authenticated age to which any human has ever lived is
122 years and 164 days, by Jeanne-Louise Calment. She was born in
France on February 21, 1875, and died at a nursing home in Arles,
southern France on August 4, 1997. President Jacques Chirac once said
Jean Calment was a little bit like a grandmother to everyone in France.
She was 14 when the Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889. She led an
extremely active life, taking up fencing at 85 years old, and was still
riding a bicycle at 100. She portrayed herself at the age of 114 in the
film Vincent And Me, to become the oldest actress in film.
To: The Smoker's Club,
I was in England last year and noted an article in the Daily Mail,
dated 10-21-03: How the world's oldest man lived to 122 by
smoking'. Seems a Mr Seil Yi died that month in Cambodia. In the
same article it mentioned Frenchwoman, Jeanne-Louose Calment was the
oldest age authenticated woman died in 1997. Ms Calment was also a
daily smoker. Here in Florida, our oldest man died last year at age
113, but he quit smoking at age 94. My grandmother died at age 96,
smoked two packs a day. My geanealogy goes back to 1640. We were all
smokers, living into our 80's back in the 1600 and 1700's, when most
people were dying in their 40's. What's the message here? Want to live
a long life? Smoke.
Jim Ringo, Jensen Beach, FL
Cannabis extract shrinks brain tumours
August 15 2004 NewScientist.com news service
www.newscientist.com/news/ last article
Cannabis extracts may shrink brain tumours and other cancers by
blocking the growth of the blood vessels which feed them, suggests a
new study.
An active component of the street drug has previously been shown to
improve brain tumours in rats. But now Manuel Guzmán at Complutense
University, Spain, and colleagues have demonstrated how the cannabis
extracts block a key chemical needed for tumours to sprout blood
vessels – a process called angiogenesis.
And for the first time, the team has shown the cannabinoids impede this
chemical in people with the most aggressive form of brain cancer -
glioblastoma multiforme.
Cristina Blázquez at Complutense University, and one of the team,
stresses the results are preliminary. “But it’s a good point to start
and continue,” she told New Scientist.
“The cannabinoid inhibits the angiogenesis response - if a tumour
doesn’t do angiogenesis, it doesn’t grow,” she explains. “So if you can
improve angiogenesis on one side and kill the tumour cells on the other
side, you can try for a therapy for cancer.”
"This research provides an important new lead compound for anti-cancer
drugs targeting cancer's blood supply,” says Richard Sullivan, head of
clinical programmes, at Cancer Research UK.
Fat molecule
The team tested the effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in 30 mice.
They found the marijuana extract inhibited the expression of several
genes related to the production of a chemical called vascular
endothelial growth factor (VEGF).
VEGF is critical for angiogenesis, which allows tumours to grow a
network of blood vessels to supply their growth. The cannabinoid
significantly lowered the activity of VEGF in the mice and two human
brain cancer patients, the study showed.
The drug did this by increasing the activity of a fat molecule called
ceramide, suggests the study, as adding a ceramide inhibitor stifled
the ability of the cannabinoid to block VEGF.
Small and pallid
“We saw that the tumours [in mice] were smaller and a bit pallid,” adds
Blázquez. The paleness of the cancer reflected its lack of blood supply
as a result of the treatment. In the human patients, she says: "It
seems that it works, but it's very early."
Sullivan points out: “Although this work is at an early stage of
development other research has already demonstrated that VEGF is an
important drug target for a range of cancers.”
He emphasises the need for further work on cannabinoid combinations.
“Cannabinoids would need to generate very strong data in the future as
there are already a number of VEGF inhibitors in clinical development,”
he says.
The two patients in the ongoing study are among 14 in a clinical trial
of the drug. The patients are given one cycle of treatment, lasting a
few days, and their survival and general health are being studied.
Journal reference: Cancer Research (vol 64, p 5617)
Shaoni Bhattacharya
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Cannabis may block growth of brain cancer
By James Hamilton
www.sundayherald.com/44079
Cannabis chemicals may provide
a new way of treating deadly brain cancer.
August 15 2004
Scientists have shown that cannabinoids – the chemicals responsible for
the drug’s “high” – deter the growth of blood vessels which feed the
tumour.
They appear to prevent genes making a protein called VEGF (vascular
endothelial growth factor) that stimulates the sprouting of blood
vessels.
Cutting off tumours’ blood supply is one of the latest anti-cancer
strategies being explored by scientists. In studies cannabinoids
significantly reduced the activity of VEGF in laboratory mice.
They also lowered VEGF levels in tumour tissue samples taken from two
patients with glioblastoma multiforme, the most lethal brain tumour
type.
About 4400 new cases of brain tumour are diagnosed in the UK each year.
A small percentage of these are grade four gliomas, the most aggressive
and dangerous brain tumours.
Only about 6% of people diagnosed with these high- grade cancers live
for more than three years. The disease is normally treated with
surgery, followed by radiotherapy and possibly chemotherapy. But the
main tumour often evades complete destruction and grows again to kill
the patient.
Cannabinoids had previously been shown to inhibit the growth of blood
vessels in mice. But the mechanism involved remained a mystery and it
was not known if the same effect occurred in humans.
In the new Spanish-led study, cannabinoids were injected into mice with
gliomas. DNA analysis was then carried out on 267 genes associated with
the growth of tumour blood vessels. It showed that the cannabis
compounds reduced the activity of several genes involved in VEGF
production.
Professor Manuel Guzman, from Complutense University in Madrid, said:
“In both patients, VEGF levels in tumour extracts were lower after
cannabinoid inoculation.”
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