Medical marijuana may have a role in breast cancer treatment
It's been more than two decades since California became the first state in the United States to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Since then, 29 states and the District of Columbia have followed suit, and seven states have taken the matter even further, legalizing the drug's recreational use.
Now, scientists looking into the possibility of marijuana having broader applications say that recent studies have shown that cannabis contains a non-toxic, non-psychoactive compound that may block the progress of metastatic breast cancer.
Researchers at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco say the compound, called cannabidiol (CBD), was used in lab tests to inhibit activity in the gene believed to be responsible for driving the growth of cancer cells.
That gene, Id-1, helps drive embryonic growth in humans, but after birth it is only found in metastatic cancer cells, said lead researcher Sean D. McAllister, an associate scientist at the center. The group has been searching for a way to “turn them off,” McAllister said, and according to the results of their study — which was published in the November 2007 issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, CBD does exactly that.
A full report will appear in the Butler Eagle.
