non-psychotropic marijuana like molecule may be effective against her2+ breast cancer

Lani · 07-26-2010, 10:35 PM

Mol Cancer. 2010 Jul 22;9(1):196. [Epub ahead of print]
Cannabinoids reduce ErbB2-driven breast cancer progression through Akt inhibition.
Caffarel MM, Andradas C, Mira E, Perez-Gomez E, Cerutti C, Moreno-Bueno G, Flores JM, Garcia-Real I, Palacios J, Manes S, Guzman M, Sanchez C.

Abstract
ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: ErbB2-positive breast cancer is characterized by highly aggressive phenotypes and reduced responsiveness to standard therapies. Although specific ErbB2-targeted therapies have been designed, only a small percentage of patients respond to these treatments and most of them eventually relapse. The existence of this population of particularly aggressive and non-responding or relapsing patients urges the search for novel therapies. The purpose of this study was to determine whether cannabinoids might constitute a new therapeutic tool for the treatment of ErbB2-positive breast tumors. We analyzed their antitumor potential in a well established and clinically relevant model of ErbB2-driven metastatic breast cancer: the MMTV-neu mouse. We also analyzed the expression of cannabinoid targets in a series of 87 human breast tumors. RESULTS: Our results show that both Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the most abundant and potent cannabinoid in marijuana, and JWH-133, a non-psychotropic CB2 receptor-selective agonist, reduce tumor growth, tumor number, and the amount/severity of lung metastases in MMTV-neu mice. Histological analyses of the tumors revealed that cannabinoids inhibit cancer cell proliferation, induce cancer cell apoptosis, and impair tumor angiogenesis. Cannabinoid antitumoral action relies, at least partially, on the inhibition of the pro-tumorigenic Akt pathway. We also found that 91% of ErbB2-positive tumors express the non-psychotropic cannabinoid receptor CB2. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these results provide a strong preclinical evidence for the use of cannabinoid-based therapies for the management of ErbB2-positive breast cancer.

PMID: 20649976

Delaney · 07-27-2010, 12:04 AM

Does it make any difference if you are er+/pr+ or er-/pr-? Might be asking a stupid question here but am not very scientific. Am willing to jump on any cure bandwagon tho!!

Ellie F · 07-27-2010, 02:04 AM

Thanks Lani
Some American researchers have been on this for some time.Interestingly a layman,I think in Canada brewed a cocktail of cannabis oil that was non-hallucinogenic and gave it FREE to people with cancer.Many of them experienced remission. I know this is anecdotal however it's amazing how these natural compounds seem to have healing properties! Needless to say the Government sued this man and closed down his 'charitable' enterprise!!
Ellie

jhandley · 07-27-2010, 06:22 AM

Do we know what components in marijuana cuase the psychosis tendencies?

Darlene Denise · 07-27-2010, 10:54 AM

Wow! Guess I will need to add a dealer to my medical team. LOL

AlaskaAngel · 07-27-2010, 01:02 PM

They take all the fun out of everything!

*twinkle*

-A Libido Lover

1rarebird · 07-27-2010, 06:27 PM

While this abstract gives hope in one way, it dashes it in another (quote):

"BACKGROUND: ErbB2-positive breast cancer is characterized by highly aggressive phenotypes and reduced responsiveness to standard therapies. Although specific ErbB2-targeted therapies have been designed, only a small percentage of patients respond to these treatments and most of them eventually relapse...."

I keep reading this kind of statement in papers published about Her2 breast cancer. Each time I get depressed with the implied futility of everything we do fighting this disease. I hope this kind of statement is more hyperbole than fact.

bird

Laurel · 07-27-2010, 06:30 PM

Well now, I guess I can revert to my old hippy-dippy day's ways.....hmmmm, guess Cheech & Chong will never get Her-2 ca.!

AlaskaAngel · 07-28-2010, 09:00 AM

It is hard to be a member of the group of patients that IS the group that makes up the first set of documented results. This is only the fifth year of standard recommended use of trastuzumab. And even with that, we know there is going to be some uncertainty about the numbers because the testing for HER2 positivity has been so problematic in deciding whose tumors actually were or were not HER2 positive.

But even more problematic is that by not providing results as 5-year AND 10-year outcomes, we end up with the same problem as we do with the predictions involving chemotherapy or hormonal therapy -- which is, that patients only are told the 10-year projection and they don't "see" that some treatments are only protective during roughly the first 5 years. If the results were provided in both 5-year outcomes and 10-year outcomes, then the question of whether or not therapy is beneficial for each individual becomes much clearer.

I explain it this way: If you can see that your outcome at 10 years is extremely likely to be favorable both with AND without the treatment you are considering, and you can see the drop off of effect after just 5 years for the tiny number in your outcome group for whom treatment fails, then you can throw in some of the potential disadvantages of doing treatment (such as chemo brain, increased risks for second cancers due to combination therapies such as chemo and radiation, loss of libido, loss of income during treatment, increased exposure over time through radiation used to check therapy effectiveness, etc. etc.), and you can make a more balanced decision about what therapies to use. This would be far more useful for early stage bc than any other group.

Seeing what the choices truly are also tends to make alternatives like exercise, balancing omegas, eating less inflammatory foods, etc. clearer choices to make on a permanent basis instead of expecting to have the problem "solved" by one or two chemical means. We are just too used to thinking that if we just suffer through a chosen treatment we can go on the way we were before diagnosis and that will solve it all.

Unless they start allowing the results to be used at the end of 5 years for figuring out what we want to choose, it would seem that we will all have to wait until AFTER 2015 when the results come out.

My ten cents.

A.A.

Laurel · 07-28-2010, 07:12 PM

Hey, Bird, don't let those dire naysayers get you down! When I read that I thought what you did until I got ticked off! You know that expression: 'eff 'em if they can't take a joke!" I plan on stickin' around just to irritate those who write us all off!

07-28-2010, 09:18 PM

I think they are referring to metastatic patients when they say they eventually relapse. I asked my oncologist this when I was first diagnosed as in "If being Her2+ is so great these days, why all the bad press" and he said that most of the time they are not referring to patients with early stage disease when they make these statements. This was over 2 years ago and I would guess that with even more drugs coming out for metastatic patients (neratinib, TDM-1), that diagnosis is changing as well.

1rarebird · 07-29-2010, 05:38 PM

Unregistered---I am hoping that your doctor is correct and the dire statements about Her2 patients in general are not applicable to early stage disease. But I am praying for all of us---early or later---none the less. I still don't see the point in the scare tactics it seems some of these researchers use at times. I wish they wouldn't do it. If the shoe were on the other foot, maybe they would be a little more sensitive and careful with their words.

bird

Jackie07 · 07-29-2010, 07:44 PM

Thought we were having a 'pot' party here.

The subject turned 'serious' again...

Doctors/scientists have to use 'data' to back up their statements. The data for Her2 postive patients right now still doesn't look very good. (Because) All the newly 'saved' (by Herceptin/TDM-1...) patients haven't passed their 5-year mark yet, so they are not counted in those statistics.

But we know (from the doctors, from the solid trial data, and from the patients we know who have had success with it) that these treatments are working and new ones are still being developed.

Let's see... I don't think I can 'inhale' it since it's still illegal in Texas.

Rich66 · 07-31-2010, 01:09 PM

Delaney,
The significance to er+ patients is worth considering. I knwo I came across positive cannabis info previously but dropped inquiry when encountering estrogenic properties. I can't tell from the abstract whether one of the tumor types testeed was ER+.
Bird,
Although anyone who frequents these boards knows Herceptin and Tykerb are by no means miracle drugs in terms of response, I think they are still trying to figure out how to use them: Higher Herceptin dosing?, Better in combination or with endocrine agents? Continue past progression? Continue for years even in adjuvant (to kill stem cells)?.....