Marijuana can help drastically shrink one of the most aggressive types of brain tumors with its active ingredients, a new study shows.
Researchers from St. George's University of London found that the combination of radiation and two different marijuana compounds, THC and CBD, could significantly shrink brain tumors. In the experiment, which was conducted on mice, the aggressive brain tumors treated with the marijuana shrunk to about one-tenth the size of the tumors in the control group.
"We've shown that cannabinoids could play a role in treating one of the most aggressive cancers in adults," Dr. Wai Liu, one of the study's lead authors, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed earlier this week. "The results are promising...it could provide a way of breaking through glioma and saving more lives."
While marijuana's cancer-fighting properties are not groundbreaking, this was the first time researchers documented the effects of the drug paired with radiation, as Liu tells Huffington Post.
When the researchers issued a low dose of marijuana's active ingredients THC and CBD the mice were more receptive to the radiation treatment.
The findings were published Friday in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapies.
