Frying Brain Tumors with Marijuana

Cannabinoids are a class of compounds including and related to marijuana’s active ingredient- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which have both psychoactive effects (the high or buzz) and neuroprotective effects such as antitumor function.  The latter effect of cannabinoids has given rise to one of the most interesting areas in cancer treatment.
Specifically, naturally occurring cannabinoid anandamide has been shown to inhibit breast cancer growth.  In addition it has been noted that the unnaturally occurring THC has the power to cause selective cell death of transformed neural cells, i.e. nervous cancer cells such as brain cancer.
Gliomas are among the most frequent class of primary brain tumors and are one of the most aggressive forms of cancer, which often results in death of affected patients within months.  Currently treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy are only marginally successful, usually only serving as a palliative treatment to make better the remainder of the victim’s life.  However, THC and other cannabinoids have been shown to selectively target and destroy glioma tumors in rat studies, while showing no deleterious effects to either the rats’ health or changes in their behavioral characteristics.¹
This of course is a surprise, considering the characteristic that most people are familiar with regarding the properties of THC, is its high inducing effect.  In fact, the reason these effects were not shown in clinical rat studies is because the dosing of THC to parts of the brain, which are linked with behavior change, is much less than that exhibited regarding normal recreational marijuana use.  By directly dosing the tumor, the “high-effect” can be minimized and the destruction of the tumor can be maximized.
So THC is an exciting possibility to selectively target brain tumors, and not suffer the recreational influence of marijuana.
For more information on the study cited in this post go to: Anti-tumoral action of cannabinoids