Some women mistakenly overlook it while breastfeeding, thinking it's mastitis. For others, it comes as a surprise on a routine exam with the gynecologist. Mary Nickles, a news anchor, discovered it when she was gowned up for a live mammogram demo for her viewers.
Regardless of how it's found, being the the most common malignancy among women in the western world, breast cancer turns the lives of our mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends upside down and inside out.
About Breast Cancer: Treatments
The long and hard fight against breast cancer has led to leaps and bounds of progress. Since the 1990s, because of advances in medical treatments, fewer and fewer patients face a dire prognosis.
The fight is not over yet despite the fact that some very successful treatments have been developed.
Ultimately, breast cancer is not just one disease. There are many types of breast cancers, which are treated differently with differing outcomes in the end.
Certain types of breast cancers are still resistant to treatment.
A considerable number of other types of breast cancers relapse rather than going into that very hopeful state of remission for years to come.
The fact also remains that current treatments have side effects that impact the quality of women's lives in a very significant way. Women are bedridden for days at a time from severe fatigue which is paradoxically coupled with difficulty sleeping. Chemotherapy also causes nerve damage that leads to a chronic pain in the hands and feet. Sometimes patients get yeast infections in the mouth which causes a lingering burning sensation.
In the fight against breast cancer, more treatment options are needed.
About Marijuana: A Primer
Over the past decade or so we've accumulated sufficient evidence in the form of research to show that marijuana has the ability to fight cancer.
Cannabinoids, chemicals made by the plant, are the key players in marijuana in exerting this anti-cancer effect.
Cannabinoids that come from the plant itself are known more specifically as Phytocannabinoids, whereas those produced by our own bodies are known as Endocannabinoids. It may come as a surprise, but our bodies produce chemicals very similar in structure and function to those found in marijuana.
There are also versions of these chemicals created in labs which are known as Synthetic Cannabinoids.
How Marijuana Fights Breast Cancer
Researchers have found that these cannabinoids modulate key factors that cause a tumor to grow, specifically in breast cancers that respond to hormones like estrogen and progesterone, as well as breast cancers classified as HER2-positive and triple-negative.
They prevent the growth of the tumor in a couple ways.
1. They prevent the cancerous cells from replicating into more cancerous copies of themselves.
2. They cut off the blood supply to the tumors themselves.
3. They reprogram cancer cells to die off.
They also prevent cancer cells from traveling to and invading other parts of the body, which is what ultimately leads to metastasis.
Additionally, while doing this research, it was found that unlike with conventional chemotherapy, the non-cancerous cells were not affected. The implications of this are significant. Conventional chemotherapy targets both cancerous and non-cancerous cells leading to an endless list of adverse effects, much like I described previously. A treatment that targets just the cancerous cells is key in reducing or even eliminating many of these adverse effects.
The Bit on Hope
Of course, it's important to keep in perspective that these results have been observed in cancer cells grown in petri dishes, tissue grafts, or mice genetically engineered to grow cancerous tumors. They certainly show much promise and give a lot of hope for the future as another treatment option for breast cancer patients, however without further research, it's difficult to translate these results to humans. Ultimately, what we need is to run clinical trials in humans for more definitive answers to the looming question, does medical marijuana treat breast cancer? Or even cancer in general?
Research Referenced:
http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/cam/hp/cannabis-pdq
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22776349
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23448745
About
Dr. Patel has been practicing in the field of Medical Marijuana since 2012. She has a practice in Walnut Creek, CA. She completed her medical studies at Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Vallejo, CA and her undergraduate studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. You can learn more about the work she does at www.DrRachnaPatel.com
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