4 ms·

Two parts of the Huffington post submission here clarify the issue: "In a paper published Friday in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapies, a team of researche

Two parts of the Huffington post submission here clarify the issue: "In a paper published Friday in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapies, a team of researchers from St. George's University of London outlined the "dramatic reductions" they observed in high-grade glioma masses, a deadly form of brain cancer, when treated with a combination of radiation and two different marijuana compounds, also known as cannabinoids. In many cases, those tumors shrunk to as low as one-tenth the sizes of those in the control group." So the tumors are being treated with radiation in the current study, as well as with cannabinoids. "Liu and his colleagues examined mice that had been infected with glioma and subsequently treated with radiation alone or in combination with varying levels of two cannabis compounds: THC, the psychoactive compound associated with the "high" sensation, and CBD, which doesn't produce psychoactive side effects." So far this is a study in a mouse model organism, which may or may not generalize to human patients. This is worth looking at further, but the trade-offs of safety and effectiveness for drug treatments of all kinds can often differ between human beings and mice.

dekhn 12y ago
Nearly all cancer studies use combination treatments. Among other reasons, the cancer cells will adapt to single treatments rapidly (for example, the treatment will kill all but a small population, which is immune to the treatment, and that population will expand).
awesor 12y ago
Exactly. Patients will still have to undergo radiation therapy - aka misery. While there are definitely improvements to all of that (laser knife, etc), it still sucks.
jobu 12y ago
This struck me as the most important part of the article: Liu pointed out that while research surrounding marijuana's cancer-fighting properties is nothing new, his team is the first to document its effect on the disease when used alongside radiation. "The results showed that the final effect was superior to the sum of the parts," he said. "Hopefully, these results will support calls for formal trials in humans to test these combinations."

dekhn 12y ago

Nearly all cancer studies use combination treatments. Among other reasons, the cancer cells will adapt to single treatments rapidly (for example, the treatment will kill all but a small population, which is immune to the treatment, and that population will expand).

awesor 12y ago

Exactly. Patients will still have to undergo radiation therapy - aka misery. While there are definitely improvements to all of that (laser knife, etc), it still sucks.

jobu 12y ago

This struck me as the most important part of the article: Liu pointed out that while research surrounding marijuana's cancer-fighting properties is nothing new, his team is the first to document its effect on the disease when used alongside radiation. "The results showed that the final effect was superior to the sum of the parts," he said. "Hopefully, these results will support calls for formal trials in humans to test these combinations."