Using cannabis in conjunction with radiotherapy can dramatically shrink and even kill cancerous tumors, according to research conducted at St. George’s, University of London. In the study, tumors in the brains of mice were treated in a variety of ways: no treatment, cannabinoids alone, irradiation alone, or with both cannabinoids and irradiation.
“Those treated with both irradiation and the cannabinoids saw the most beneficial results and a drastic reduction in size. In some cases, the tumors effectively disappeared.
‘We’ve shown that cannabinoids could play a role in treating one of the most aggressive cancers in adults,” wrote lead researcher Dr. Wai Liu, in a November 2014 op-ed for The Washington Post. “The results are promising… it could provide a way of breaking through glioma [tumors] and saving more lives.’”
Researchers are now considering combining irradiation with cannabinoids in a human trial. Read the full study, published in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, and titled “The Combination of Cannabidiol and Tetrahydrocannabinol Enhances the Anticancer Effects of Radiation in an Orthotopic Murine Glioma Model.”
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