"Cannabis and Cancer"

Cancer is the holy grail of medical research and it’s the most-coveted breakthrough of our time. (and the most profitable disease). 

If we could discover a way to prevent malignant cells from effect in the human body, not only would we save millions of lives, but we would end years of suffering and, we could finally feel superior from this illness.

But, is Cannabis a way that we can achive this?

Studies, so far, show that cannabis can kill all types of cancer cells, reduce angiogenesis and prevent from metastasis

One Treatment Doesn’t Fit All...

Cancer isn’t just one thing. It’s an umbrella term for a collection of related illnesses. What unites these is the method of mayhem: cancer divides and spreads like ants at a picnic. And because it’s not just one kind of ant, we’ve developed slightly different ways to deal with each species.

Standard cancer treatment must be adapted to the type and location of tumor. When cancer infects the brain, we can’t necessarily handle it the way we would handle cancer in the stomach. Even if the same treatments would effective at stopping the cancer, the collateral damage to brain cells is just too risky.

Although human trials and solid scientific research are still a ways off, early studies indicated that cannabis might be the one truly universal way to kill cancer cells and while chemotherapy and radiation have certainly helped humanity’s battle against cancer, research into the endocannabinoid system keeps new information about how cannabis can to prevent tumors to form, spread and turn deadly.

Cannabis Reduce Angiogenesis...

First of all, Angiogenesis is the process by which new blood vessels form from the old ones (the process is like a plant that sprouting). The new blood vessels has to do from how wounds heal to how a person will grow, also are new and better pathways form for the blood circulation. It’s a vital part of the body’s daily function but unfortunatelly, Angiogenesis has to do and with how tumors cells grows and transitioned from benign to malignant.

Cancer creates cells that don’t have the ability to divide in a controlled fashion, leading to out-of-control growth. And what fuels that growth? For tumors to get larger and spread, they need a supply of essential nutrients and oxygen, which they get from the bloodstream. So when a cancer begins to grow, it has to do so at the same rate as the blood vessels which nourish it. Without new vessels, the tumor couldn’t expand. Thus one of the ways to combat cancer growth is by limiting the ability of the body to generate new blood vessels.That’s anti-angiogenesis.

One of the key ways that cannabis combats cancer is through the antiangiogenic effects. Cannabinoids can reduce angiogenesis, cell migration and metastasis, inhibit carcinogenesis and attenuate inflammatory processes.Also the ECS can directly affect carcinogenesis by modulating inflammatory stress that leads to carcinogenesis

Cannabis Stops Metastasis...

Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body, the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, are metastases (mets).  It is generally distinguished from cancer invasion, which is the direct extension and penetration by cancer cells into neighboring tissues.

Cannabinoids play a key role exhibit their action by a modulation of the signaling pathways crucial in the control of cell proliferation and survival. Many in vitro and in vivo experiments have shown that cannabinoids inhibit proliferation of cancer cells, stimulate autophagy and apoptosis, and have also a potential to inhibit angiogenesis and metastasis.

Specifically, CBD  inhibits a gene (Id-1) that researchers believe is responsible for the metastatic process that spreads cells from the original tumor throughout the body and has proven anti-proliferative effects on cancer cells by inducing apoptosis.

Cannabis and Apoptosis...

From the Greek for “falling off,” apoptosis can be best be understood as a cell’s self-destruct sequence. It’s how the body rids itself of bad or non-performing cells. Cancer can fool the body into thinking that tumorous cells aren’t bad and shouldn’t undergo apoptosis.

Cannabinoids do induce apoptosis in immune cells, alleviating inflammatory responses and protecting the host from acute and chronic inflammation. The cumulative effect of cannabinoids on all cell populations of the immune system can be beneficial

-A very recent March 2016 Israeli study found that while both TCH and CBD catalyzed cancer cell death in childhood neuroblastomas (brain cancers), CBD was actually more effective at inducing apoptosis through morphological changes within the cell. It was especially seen to be a catalyst for the production of healthy caspases within cells. Caspases are enzymes that play a major role in controlling inflammation and in sparking apoptosis.

-A 2013 Italian study found that CBD in particular induced apoptosis in prostate cancer cells in part because it helped to elevate levels of a family of substances called “reactive oxygen species.”

As the name implies, “reactive oxygen species” contain high levels of oxygen. Cancer cells cannot live in the presence of oxygen and must stay within anaerobic environments in order to survive. The presence of substances such as peroxides, superoxides and hydroxyls, which CBD seems to elevate, can quickly lead to cancer cell death.

Final Thoughts...

Although science has pretty much confirmed that both CBD and THC individually can induce apoptosis, the most impressive effects occur when the hundreds of phytonutrients present in a single cannabis plant work synergistically against cancer tumor formation and spread.

Besides CBD and THC, cannabis also contains phytonutrients called terpenes, many of which have been proven in research studies to effect cancer cell death. Some terpenes that have this ability are limonene, linalool ,myrcene and pinene.

Cannabis contains too many phytonutrients to name that may contribute to its overall effect at inducing cancer cell apoptosis. Although science has learned a lot about this process, it still has a long way to go in understanding all the mechanisms at play