Cannabis Fights Cancer! The Surprisingly Strong Preclinical, Human, and Logical Evidence
Don’t believe cannabis can really fight cancer? Learn why it works here!
Most people readily accept that cannabis can help treat symptoms related to cancer or the side effects of conventional treatments. It is well understood that cannabis improves appetite, reduces nausea and vomiting, mitigates pain, and facilitates sleep. But there is a far greater resistance to the notion that cannabis can produce direct anticancer effects in humans.
This resistance is completely understandable, and frankly, the proper initial reaction to have. It’s bold to claim that anything not FDA-approved can fight cancer. Conventional treatments, like chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, or immunotherapy, have undergone extensive double-blind, placebo-controlled trials to prove their safety and efficacy. In addition to these conventional treatments, many alternative interventions exist, including other herbs, foods, machines, or even spiritually-based treatments. When patients forego FDA-approved approaches for alternative treatments that don’t work, they may die where otherwise they would have survived. Therefore, it’s completely reasonable to be skeptical of anything outside the mainstream. However, I’m here to tell you that cannabis is special, and by the end of this video, you’ll at least agree it deserves to be researched more intensely.
Before starting, I must be clear that it is not advisable for any patient to skip conventional treatment and use cannabis instead. Despite the strength of the evidence, there is no way at this time to know who will respond to cannabis therapy. It’s not perfect and doesn’t work for everyone. Thankfully, evidence suggests cannabis can be safely integrated with conventional treatments, and potentially even make them work better. The only exception is with immunotherapy, where evidence indicates cannabis may impair its effectiveness. In patients who are using immunotherapy, the general consensus is for patients to not use cannabis, or at least use it at the lowest possible doses for symptomatic relief, unless the immunotherapy proves ineffective on its own.
Cannabis is composed of hundreds of compounds, the primary therapeutic ones being cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids. These three classes of compounds have been shown to kill cancer cells in preclinical studies, although the focus of this video is on cannabinoids. The most studied plant cannabinoids, called phytocannabinoids, are tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). Both have been consistently demonstrated to directly kill or inhibit virtually every type of cancer cell they’ve been tested against, including brain, bone, breast, cervical, colorectal, prostate, pancreatic, liver, gastric, ovarian, and skin cancer cells, as well as rarer forms like cholangiocarcinoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, and Kaposi sarcoma.
In many, but not all, of these studies, the cannabinoids have demonstrated selective action, only killing the cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone.
Beyond cells, many animal models with mice and rats have demonstrated that cannabinoids shrink experimentally-generated tumors, including these examples.
Cholangiocarcinoma (i) control, (ii) 15 mg/kg THC, (iii) 30 mg/kg THC, (iv) 20 mg/kg CBN, and (v) 40 mg/kg CBN
and Melanoma
Many people would stop here and consider this all a compelling argument. However, none of this is actually all that impressive in isolation, as lots of natural compounds kill cancer cells, even selectively, and shrink tumors in animals.
The first major point that sets phytocannabinoids apart is the fact that endogenous cannabinoids, produced by all mammals and known as endocannabinoids, also kill or inhibit cancer cells through similar mechanisms as the phytocannabinoids. These endocannabinoids bind with cannabinoid receptors on the surface of cells throughout the entire body to produce physiological effects largely related to the maintenance of homeostasis, or internal balance. CB1 receptors are found primarily in the central nervous system, while CB2 receptors are predominantly in the immune system, but one or both receptor types are found in most major organs. For example, CB1 receptors in the brain help regulate neurotransmission, primarily by inhibiting excessive stimulation of neurons, while CB2 receptors help prevent inflammation from getting out of control.
Many studies demonstrate that THC and CBD kill cancer cells by activating CB1 and/or CB2 receptors, as well as other receptors like TRPV1 and PPAR-gamma. Anandamide has also been shown to kill numerous types of cancer cells in the same ways, primarily via CB1 and TRPV1 activation. Moreso, many types of cancer cells express higher levels of cannabinoid receptors than their healthy counterparts. Researchers have posited that this is a potential self-defense mechanism against cancer development – if a healthy cell becomes cancerous, it expresses more cannabinoid receptors to make itself more susceptible to the effects of anandamide, allowing itself to be killed for the good of the organism. If this is the case, it makes sense that phytocannabinoids would be quite an effective cancer treatment, since they would be tapping into an inherent cancer-defense system we already have. For example, in pancreatic cancer, researchers stated, “Cannabinoid receptors are known to be expressed in pancreatic cells, with a higher expression reported in pancreatic cancer patients. Therefore, pharmacological targeting of the endocannabinoid system might offer therapeutic benefits in pancreatic cancer”.
While clinical trials are limited, one double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with glioblastoma patients found those treated with THC and CBD, along with chemotherapy, had median survival of 21.8 months, compared to 12.1 months in the placebo group that only received chemotherapy. It is unlikely this level of life extension could be achieved only from symptom relief, and anticancer effects probably played some role.
Other preclinical evidence for conditions besides cancer has translated radically well to humans. For example, many studies with cells and animals suggested CBD could reduce seizures, including the one here. By 2017, CBD’s antiseizure effects were formally proven to work in real patients, and the pharmaceutical CBD formula Epidiolex was soon approved by the FDA and placed in Schedule V of the Controlled Substances Act, the least restrictive category. The preclinical studies mainly used chemically-driven seizures, which are far less complex than the genetic defect-associated seizures Epidiolex is prescribed for. Therefore, the preclinical evidence for CBD and epilepsy translated to humans better than the evidence indicated.
This translational success bolsters the case for preclinical cancer effects working in humans as well.
Another reasonable concern is how cannabis could possibly be effective against numerous cancer types. As noted, dozens of preclinical studies with cells and animals show that cannabinoids, not to mention terpenes and flavonoids, kill or inhibit most major cancer types. Different receptors may be targeted in disparate cancer types, including CB1, CB2, TRPV1, TRPM8, PPAR-gamma, and GPR55 receptors. The downstream effects of receptor activation generally relate to chemical signaling pathways that lead to impaired reproduction of cancer cells and cell suicide, known as apoptosis.
Real-world evidence, case studies, and media-reported human evidence are also quite compelling. There are hundreds of public cases reported on news websites, social media groups, and local affiliates of stations like ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC, and Fox. In many of these cases, THC-rich and/or CBD-rich extracts were associated with remissions from terminally-diagnosed cancers, such as Rhonda Gossett [breast cancer], Ray Jennings [squamous cell carcinoma], Cecilia von Harz [kidney cancer], Taylor Rehmeyer [brain cancer], and Joy Smith [ovarian cancer].
Case reports published in journals hosted on PubMed also show evidence of anticancer effects in humans. For example:
A case of basal cell carcinoma from Dr. Franjo Grotenhermen, treated with THC extract as the sole therapy
Lung cancer, treated with only CBD oil as the sole therapy
Squamous cell carcinoma, with reversal of a rapidly-growing tumor once topical administration of THC/CBD oil (THC 5.24% + CBD 8.02%) started.
Leukemia, treated solely with THC-rich extract after conventional therapy failed
Another squamous cell carcinoma, treated solely with CBD oil
The chance that every anticancer response is not at all due to cannabis, despite the unusually supportive scientific and logical evidence, is simply impossible. There is no doubt cannabis can fight cancer in at least some cases. However, as noted in the introduction, cannabis does not work for everyone, conventional therapy should not be skipped, and there is still so much more to learn. It’s also almost certain that some anticancer effects attributed to cannabis really were actually caused by other factors. Nonetheless, current evidence more than justifies global access to cannabis medicine for all cancer patients. We also need more research to determine optimal protocols for different cancer types, as well as the full range of benefits and potential adverse effects.
In summary:
Plant cannabinoids like THC and CBD, along with endocannabinoids like anandamide, kill cancer cells through similar mechanisms
Many cancer cells express higher levels of cannabinoid receptors than healthy counterparts, with researchers suggesting this may make them more susceptible to anticancer effects of endocannabinoids
A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial showed THC and CBD extended the lives of glioblastoma patients, suggesting a direct anticancer effect
Other preclinical evidence with cells and animals, such as CBD treating epilepsy, has translated radically well to humans
Positive reports of cannabis producing anticancer effects in humans have been reported in mainstream and social media for the past 15 years
Positive case reports have been published in peer-reviewed journals demonstrating direct anticancer effects
It is imperative that more people learn of the uniquely strong support for cannabis as a cancer treatment, so please share this video with anyone you can. If you want to see more, dozens of scientific articles and over 200 human cases are summarized at FreeCannabisCancerBook.com. The evidence speaks for itself.
To help raise awareness, please consider purchasing and reviewing the equivalent Amazon version here.
