Researchers Believe Cannabidiol May Inhibit Growth of Aggressive Breast Cancer
Researchers at the California Medical Center in San Francisco believe they have made a connection between cannabidiol (CBD), a compound found in marijuana, and the Id-1 gene, which is found in aggressive types of breast cancer. The study by scientists Sean D. McAllister, Ph.D. and Pierre Desprez, Ph.D. examined the use of Cannabidiol to prohibit the metastasis of aggressive forms breast cancer for which there has historically been limited treatment methods. Using mice cells, human breast cancer cells and petri dishes, the biologists found “that treatment with CBD significantly reduces primary tumor mass as well as the size and number of lung metastatic foci in two models of metastasis.”
In other words, the CBD compound reduced the breast cancer tumor and the number of tumors sites or metastasis to the lungs. As the researchers wrote in the introduction to one of their papers, “metastasis to other tissues of the body is the final and fatal step during cancer.”
As the expression of the Id-1 protein has been associated in over twenty types of aggressive forms of cancer, this is good news in the study of treatment for aggressive forms of cancer.
The researchers are hoping to begin clinical trials. As the CBD compound is created in a laboratory (versus marijuana leaves) and as the compound is not one of the compounds in marijuana which leaves its users “high”, here’s hoping the government allows and supports these trials as soon as possible.
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