2 August 2009
Science: Risk of head and neck cancer reduced in cannabis users
in large epidemiological study
A working group of scientists of several universities of the USA
(universities of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Louisiana, and
Minnesota) investigated the effects of cannabis use on the
development of a certain head and neck cancer (head and neck
squamous cell carcinoma). Information of cannabis use by 434
patients was compared with data of 547 healthy subjects. After
adjusting for potential other risk factors (including tobacco
smoking and alcohol drinking), cannabis use was associated with a
statistically significant decrease of this cancer. The risk was
decreased by 48 per cent.
This association was consistent across different measures of
cannabis use (current/former use, duration, and frequency of use).
For participants, who used the drug for 10 to 20 years the risk
was about one-third of that of non-users. The magnitude of the
reduced risk was more pronounced for those who started use
after 20 years of age compared to younger age. Authors
concluded that their “study suggests that moderate marijuana use
is associated with reduced risk” of sqamous cell carcinoma of
head and neck. They noted that experimental data have shown
that cannabinoids inhibit cancer growth.
(Source: Liang C, McClean MD, Marsit C, Christensen B, Peters
E, Nelson HH, Kelsey KT. A Population-Based Case-Control
Study of Marijuana Use and Head and Neck Squamous Cell
Carcinoma. Cancer Prev Res (Phila Pa). 2009 Jul 28. [Electronic
publication ahead of print])
[Germany: Bionorica aims for getting an approval for a dronabinol
preparation in Germany in 2010
>http://www.aerztezeitung.de/praxis_wirtschaft/unternehmen/?sid= 558547]
The head of Bionorica, Professor Michael Popp, hopes that their
medicinal preparation with the cannabis compound dronabinol will
be approved in the coming year for the therapy of symptoms of
AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis. He talked on this issue
during the visit by Chancellor Angela Merkel at the manufacturer
of medicinal plant based drugs in Neumarkt on her birthday on 17
July. The company is currently conducting clinical studies in
Germany.
Bionorica is producing dronabinol (THC) since 2002 and makes
the substance available for pharmacies for the manufacturing of
medicinal drugs. The dronabinol of the company Bionorica is
gained by transformation of cannabidiol, which is extracted from
fibre hemp. It is a company with 870 employees and a yearly
turnover of 130 million euros (about 180 million US dollars). Since
long it is conducting own research and attaches importance to the
verification of quality, efficacy and safety of their plant based
preparations in clinical and pharmacological studies.
(Source: Aerztezeitung of 19 July 2009)
News in brief
Canada: Prairie Plant Systems
An abandoned mine in northern Canada may lose its role as the
country’s only government-approved cannabis production site.
Production at the mine at Flin Flon, Manitoba, had to be moved
because the facility was no longer big enough, operator Prairie
Plant Systems said on 22 July. In the mine legal cannabis had
been produced for nearly a decade since Canada began allowing
patients legal access to cannabis for medical reasons. No decision
has been made so far on the future production site. (Source:
Reuters of 22 July 2009)
USA: Colorado
Colorado’s state health board has rejected a move to limit the
number of patients, who can be helped by medical cannabis
suppliers at a time, to only five ill people. This decision allows
cannabis dispensaries to continue to distribute the drug to patients.
The board voted 6-3 on 20 July to defeat the proposal by the state
health department. Opponents of the five-person limit argued the
board didn’t have a right to change the law passed by voters in
2000. The law made Colorado one of currently 13 states that
allow the medical use of cannabis in the USA. (Source:
Associated Press of 20 July 2009)
Science: Genetic stability of cannabis
Researchers of the University of Mississippi, USA, demonstrated
that their method to produce many clones of a cannabis plant at a
time ensured a stable genetic profile compared to mother plants.
Clones and mother plants showed a similar cannabinoid profile
and insignificant differences in THC content. (Source: Lata H, et
al. Planta Med. 2009 Jul 27. [Electronic publication ahead of
print])
Science: Cancer
Researchers at the Karolinska Institute and University Hospital of
Stockholm, Sweden, demonstrated that the ability of cannabinoids
to destroy cancer cells was increased by ceramides. They used
certain cancer cells (mantle cell lymphoma cells), which were
treated with the synthetic cannabinoid methanandamide. The
cannabinoid increased ceramide levels. If the metabolism of
ceramides was influenced in a way that led to further ceramide
accumulation, the destruction of cancer cells by the cannabinoid
was enhanced. Ceramides are a family of lipid molecules, which
are found in high concentrations within the cell membrane of cells.
(Source: Gustafsson K, et al. Mol Cancer Res 2009;7(7):1086-98.)
(More at the IACM-Bulletin archives)
International Association for Cannabis as Medicine (IACM)
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D-59602 Ruethen
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)2952-9708571
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Email: info@cannabis-med.org
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