“A hypothetical link between marijuana smoking and cancer has been established based on a number of misleading assumptions. However, recent studies tend to suggest, if anything, an inverse association between marijuana use and cancers. To test the hypothesis that marijuana smoking significantly lowers the risk of developing cancer in humans, we analyzed published data from a prospective cohort study on cancer incidence among nonsmokers (NS), marijuana-only smokers (MS), tobacco-only smokers (TS), and marijuana and tobacco smokers (MTS). Using the log linear model to calculate the probability of developing each cancer form as a function of the interaction between marijuana and tobacco smoking, as well as functions of marijuana and tobacco smoking main effects whereby chi square statistics were calculated for the interaction and main effect estimates, we found that in all cases tested there was a significantly lower risk for MS compared to TS. Male and female TS had a greater probability of developing lung cancer than did MS. Males and females TS had a greater probability of developing lung cancer compared with NS. Males and female MTS had a slightly higher probability of developing lung cancer than did MS. This difference was statistically significant: chi2 = 30.51, p < .00001, with a correlation coefficient of -0.75, Z = -7.84, p < .05. Male and female MTS had a lower probability of developing lung cancer than did TS. This difference was statistically significant: chi2 = 71.61, p = .00003, with a correlation coefficient of 0.61, Z = 5.06, p < .05.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19004418 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02791072.2008.10400641 ]]>
Category Archives: Lung Cancer
Nanoparticle Drones to Target Lung Cancer with Radiosensitizers and Cannabinoids
“Nanotechnology has opened up a new, previously unimaginable world in cancer diagnosis and therapy, leading to the emergence of cancer nanomedicine and nanoparticle-aided radiotherapy. These nanoparticle drones can be programmed to deliver therapeutic payloads to tumor sites to achieve optimal therapeutic efficacy. In this article, we examine the state-of-the-art and potential of nanoparticle drones in targeting lung cancer. Inhalation (INH) (air) versus traditional intravenous (“sea”) routes of navigating physiological barriers using such drones is assessed. Results and analysis suggest that INH route may offer more promise for targeting tumor cells with radiosensitizers and cannabinoids from the perspective of maximizing damage to lung tumors cells while minimizing any collateral damage or side effects. As discussed earlier, nanoparticle drones are particularly attractive because they can also be loaded with drugs payload like cannabinoids. Cannabinoids, which are the bioactive components of Cannabis sativa and their derivatives, may exert palliative effects in cancer patients by preventing nausea, vomiting, and pain and by stimulating appetite . Furthermore, studies indicate that cannabinoids can inhibit cancer cell growth in in vitro and in vivo. A Nature Reviews Cancer article and other recently published work highlight the potential of cannabinoids for treating cancer, working in synergy with radiotherapy and serving as radiosensitzers to enhance damage to lung tumor cells in particular. Consistent with this, our own experiments have confirmed the potential of cannabinoids in treating lung cancer, with results confirming that cannabinoids can enhance damage to cancer cells. Overall, the use of nanoparticle drones administered via INH to enhance NRT, as highlighted in this article, may provide a good strategy for maximizing therapeutic efficacy in external beam NRT for lung cancer. Also there is growing evidence that cannabinoids can serve as radiosensitizers, enhance damage to tumor cells, slow tumor growth, and work synergistically with radiotherapy in cancer treatment.” http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fonc.2017.00208/full
“Cannabis Science Announces Publication of Initial Research Results Using Nanoparticle Drones to Target Lung Cancer With Radiosensitizers and Cannabinoids in the Renowned Journal Frontiers in Oncology” https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/cannabis-science-announces-publication-initial-120522920.html
“Cannabis Science “Nanoparticle Drones to Target Lung Cancer with Radiosensitizers and Cannabinoids” Full Publication Released Today In Frontiers In Oncology” http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/cannabis-science-nanoparticle-drones-target-lung-cancer-with-radiosensitizers-cannabinoids-2234167.htm
]]>A Review of the Therapeutic Antitumor Potential of Cannabinoids.
“The aim of this review is to discuss cannabinoids from a preclinical and clinical oncological perspective and provide the audience with a concise, retrospective overview of the most significant findings concerning the potential use of cannabinoids in cancer treatment.
RESULTS:
Cannabis sativa is a plant rich in more than 100 types of cannabinoids. Besides exogenous plant cannabinoids, mammalian endocannabinoids and synthetic cannabinoid analogues have been identified. Cannabinoid receptors type 1 (CB1) and type 2 (CB2) have been isolated and characterized from mammalian cells. Through cannabinoid receptor and non-receptor signaling pathways, cannabinoids show specific cytotoxicity against tumor cells, while protecting healthy tissue from apoptosis. The dual antiproliferative and proapoptotic effects of cannabinoids and associated signaling pathways have been investigated on a large panel of cancer cell lines. Cannabinoids also display potent anticancer activity against tumor xenografts, including tumors that express high resistance to standard chemotherapeutics. Few studies have investigated the possible synergistic effects of cannabinoids with standard oncology therapies, and are based on the preclinically confirmed concept of “cannabinoid sensitizers.” Also, clinical trials aimed to confirm the antineoplastic activity of cannabinoids have only been evaluated on a small number of subjects, with no consensus conclusions regarding their effectiveness.CONCLUSIONS:
A large number of cannabinoid compounds have been discovered, developed, and used to study the effects of cannabinoids on cancers in model systems. However, few clinical trials have been conducted on the use of cannabinoids in the treatment of cancers in humans. Further studies require extensive monitoring of the effects of cannabinoids alone or in combination with standard anticancer strategies. With such knowledge, cannabinoids could become a therapy of choice in contemporary oncology.”Cannabinoids as Modulators of Cell Death: Clinical Applications and Future Directions.
“Endocannabinoids are bioactive lipids that modulate various physiological processes through G-protein-coupled receptors (CB1 and CB2) and other putative targets. By sharing the activation of the same receptors, some phytocannabinoids and a multitude of synthetic cannabinoids mimic the effects of endocannabinoids.
In recent years, a growing interest has been dedicated to the study of cannabinoids properties for their analgesic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects. In addition to these well-recognized effects, various studies suggest that cannabinoids may affect cell survival, cell proliferation or cell death. These observations indicate that cannabinoids may play an important role in the regulation of cellular homeostasis and, thus, may contribute to tissue remodelling and cancer treatment.
For a long time, the study of cannabinoid receptor signalling has been focused on the classical adenylyl cyclase/cyclic AMP/protein kinase A (PKA) pathway. However, this pathway does not totally explain the wide array of biological responses to cannabinoids. In addition, the diversity of receptors and signalling pathways that endocannabinoids modulate offers an interesting opportunity for the development of specific molecules to disturb selectively the endogenous system.
Moreover, emerging evidences suggest that cannabinoids ability to limit cell proliferation and to induce tumour-selective cell death may offer a novel strategy in cancer treatment.
This review describes the main properties of cannabinoids in cell death and attempts to clarify the different pathways triggered by these compounds that may help to understand the complexity of respective molecular mechanisms and explore the potential clinical benefit of cannabinoids use in cancer therapies.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28425013
In vitro and in vivo evaluation of Δ⁹-tetrahidrocannabinol/PLGA nanoparticles for cancer chemotherapy.
“Nanoplatforms can optimize the efficacy and safety of chemotherapy, and thus cancer therapy. However, new approaches are encouraged in developing new nanomedicines against malignant cells.
In this work, a reproducible methodology is described to prepare Δ(9)-tetrahidrocannabinol (Δ(9)-THC)-loaded poly(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) nanoparticles against lung cancer.
Cell viability studies comparing the activity of the nanoformulations against human A-549 and murine LL2 lung adenocarcinoma cells, and human embryo lung fibroblastic MRC-5 cells revealed a statistically significant selective cytotoxic effect toward the lung cancer cell lines.
In addition, cytotoxicity assays in A-549 cells demonstrated the more intense anticancer activity of Δ(9)-THC-loaded PEGylated PLGA nanoparticles.
These promising results were confirmed by in vivo studies in LL2 lung tumor-bearing immunocompetent C57BL/6 mice.”
ENDOCANNABINOID SYSTEM: A multi-facet therapeutic target.
“Cannabis sativa is also popularly known as marijuana. It is being cultivated and used by man for recreational and medicinal purposes from many centuries.
Study of cannabinoids was at bay for very long time and its therapeutic value could not be adequately harnessed due to its legal status as proscribed drug in most of the countries.
The research of drugs acting on endocannabinoid system has seen many ups and down in recent past. Presently, it is known that endocannabinoids has role in pathology of many disorders and they also serve “protective role” in many medical conditions.
Several diseases like emesis, pain, inflammation, multiple sclerosis, anorexia, epilepsy, glaucoma, schizophrenia, cardiovascular disorders, cancer, obesity, metabolic syndrome related diseases, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and Tourette’s syndrome could possibly be treated by drugs modulating endocannabinoid system.
Presently, cannabinoid receptor agonists like nabilone and dronabinol are used for reducing the chemotherapy induced vomiting. Sativex (cannabidiol and THC combination) is approved in the UK, Spain and New Zealand to treat spasticity due to multiple sclerosis. In US it is under investigation for cancer pain, another drug Epidiolex (cannabidiol) is also under investigation in US for childhood seizures. Rimonabant, CB1 receptor antagonist appeared as a promising anti-obesity drug during clinical trials but it also exhibited remarkable psychiatric side effect profile. Due to which the US Food and Drug Administration did not approve Rimonabant in US. It sale was also suspended across the EU in 2008.
Recent discontinuation of clinical trial related to FAAH inhibitor due to occurrence of serious adverse events in the participating subjects could be discouraging for the research fraternity. Despite of some mishaps in clinical trials related to drugs acting on endocannabinoid system, still lot of research is being carried out to explore and establish the therapeutic targets for both cannabinoid receptor agonists and antagonists.
One challenge is to develop drugs that target only cannabinoid receptors in a particular tissue and another is to invent drugs that acts selectively on cannabinoid receptors located outside the blood brain barrier. Besides this, development of the suitable dosage forms with maximum efficacy and minimum adverse effects is also warranted.
Another angle to be introspected for therapeutic abilities of this group of drugs is non-CB1 and non-CB2 receptor targets for cannabinoids.
In order to successfully exploit the therapeutic potential of endocannabinoid system, it is imperative to further characterize the endocannabinoid system in terms of identification of the exact cellular location of cannabinoid receptors and their role as “protective” and “disease inducing substance”, time-dependent changes in the expression of cannabinoid receptors.”
Smoking marijuana reduces cancer risk
“Marijuana reduces cancer risk and kills existing tumors”
“This may be hard to believe — as we’re fairly accustomed to the notion that inhaling smoke is always bad for your health — but research shows smoking marijuana actually decreases the risk for developing lung cancer.
According to multiple study findings published on Cancer.gov, “Cannabinoids appear to kill tumor cells but do not affect their nontransformed counterparts and may even protect them from cell death.”
Dr. Donald Tashkin, professor emeritus of medicine at UCLA, also recently revealed to LA Weekly that after 30 years of studying the effects of marijuana smoke on lung function, he did not find any association between lung cancer and smoking weed.
Smoking marijuana doesn’t lead to impaired lung function either
Tashkin also found smoking marijuana does not lead to impaired lung function even after years of habitual use.”
More: http://extract.suntimes.com/information-resources/10/153/892/smoking-marijuana-reduces-cancer-risk
“Cannabis has been shown to kill cancer cells in the laboratory. Cannabinoids appear to kill tumor cells but do not affect their nontransformed counterparts and may even protect them from cell death.” http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/cam/patient/cannabis-pdq#section/all
Cannabinoid pharmacology in cancer research: A new hope for cancer patients?
“Cannabinoids have been used for many centuries to ease pain and in the past decade, the endocannabinoid system has been implicated in a number of pathophysiological conditions, such as mood and anxiety disorders, movement disorders such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease, neuropathic pain, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, stroke, hypertension, glaucoma, obesity, and osteoporosis.
Several studies have demonstrated that cannabinoids also have anti-cancer activity and as cannabinoids are usually well tolerated and do not produce the typical toxic effects of conventional chemotherapies, there is considerable merit in the development of cannabinoids as potential anticancer therapies.
Whilst the presence of psychoactive effects of cannabinoids could prevent any progress in this field, recent studies have shown the value of the non-psychoactive components of cannabinoids in activating apoptotic pathways, inducing anti-proliferative and anti-angiogenic effects.
The aforementioned effects are suggested to be through pathways such as ERK, Akt, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathways and hypoxia inducible factor 1 (HIF1), all of which are important contributors to the hallmarks of cancer.
Many important questions still remain unanswered or are poorly addressed thus necessitating further research at basic pre-clinical and clinical levels. In this review, we address these issues with a view to identifying the key challenges that future research needs to address.”
Ligands for cannabinoid receptors, promising anticancer agents.
“Cannabinoid compounds are unique to cannabis and provide some interesting biological properties.
These compounds along with endocannabinoids, a group of neuromodulator compounds in the body especially in brain, express their effects by activation of G-protein-coupled cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2.
There are several physiological properties attributed to the endocannabinoids including pain relief, enhancement of appetite, blood pressure lowering during shock, embryonic development, and blocking of working memory.
On the other hand, activation of endocannabinoid system may be suppresses evolution and progression of several types of cancer.
According to the results of recent studies, CB receptors are over-expressed in cancer cell lines and application of multiple cannabinoid or cannabis-derived compounds reduce tumor size through decrease of cell proliferation or induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis along with desirable effect on decrease of tumor-evoked pain.
Therefore, modulation of endocannabinoid system by inhibition of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), the enzyme, which metabolized endocannabinoids, or application of multiple cannabinoid or cannabis-derived compounds, may be appropriate for the treatment of several cancer subtypes. This review focuses on how cannabinoid affect different types of cancers.”
Cannabinoid receptor-2 agonist inhibits macrophage induced EMT in non-small cell lung cancer by downregulation of EGFR pathway.
“JWH-015, a cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) agonist has tumor regressive property in various cancer types.
These data confer the impact of this cannabinoid on anti-proliferative and anti-tumorigenic effects, thus enhancing our understanding of its therapeutic efficacy in NSCLC.
Our findings open new avenues for cannabinoid receptor CB2 agonist-JWH-015 as a novel and potential therapeutic target based on EGFR downregulation mechanisms in NSCLC.”