It may come as a surprise to you, but recent research seems to suggest that certain strains of medicinal cannabis can act as an effective treatment for skin cancer. It should be noted that the studies have only been conducted in labs and rats, as human trials for this type of research are currently banned.
This research comes off the back of intriguing research made public in 2014. The previous research, which was published in the journal Life Sciences, experimented as to whether THC managed to kill melanoma cells in mice.
Caution should be made at this stage, as research on mice doesn’t necessarily translate into success in humans. But, it appears, at least from anecdotal evidence of skin cancer patients, that patients have used cannabis for this purpose with some success. In the research, the mice which suffered from cancer were treated with THC, which is the main psychoactive component of cannabis. They compared the results with that of normal mice, as well as mice which didn’t have the cannabinoid receptors. These receptors are crucial for the THC to produce their effect. In the human body, these receptors are normally only used by the body’s endocannabinoids, or more colloquially known as “human THC”.
The results of the research were quite astounding. It was found that the THC successfully reduced the size of the tumors that the mice had. This meant that the researchers were able to confirm that THC does seem to have a positive effect on the treatment of melanoma, at least in mice.
The researchers were able to confirm that the THC was the main contributor to this effect because the tumors in the mice who didn’t have the cannabinoid receptors grew at the same rate as the normal mice. If this finding is able to transfer over to human trials, this could be seen as a massive breakthrough for the treatment of skin cancer.
While treatments for humans using this method are not currently available, it is positive to see some developments being made in the treatment of this cancer. As the number of studies increase into the area, it is hoped there will be a better understanding of the cancer and how cannabis can offer a viable treatment solution.
There is also exciting treatment solutions using cannabis oil, which are important to keep a track of – https://cannabis.net/blog/medical/cannabis-oil-for-skin-cancer-patients-is-taking-off/.
