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No Link between Marijuana and Lung Cancer
May 26, 2006

This I thought interesting to share.
Public release date: 23-May-2006


Contact: Jim Augustine or Bill Glitz
619-525-6216
American Thoracic Society

Study finds no link between marijuana use and lung cancer
SAN DIEGO--People who smoke marijuana--even heavy, long-term
marijuana users--do not appear to be at increased risk of developing
lung cancer, according to a study to be presented at the American
Thoracic Society International Conference on May 23rd.
Marijuana smoking also did not appear to increase the risk of head
and neck cancers, such as cancer of the tongue, mouth, throat, or
esophagus, the study found.

The findings were a surprise to the researchers. "We expected that
we would find that a history of heavy marijuana use--more than 500-
1,000 uses--would increase the risk of cancer from several years to
decades after exposure to marijuana," said the senior researcher,
Donald Tashkin, M.D., Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen
School of Medicine at UCLA in Los Angeles.

The study looked at 611 people in Los Angeles County who developed
lung cancer, 601 who developed cancer of the head or neck regions,
and 1,040 people without cancer who were matched on age, gender and
neighborhood. The researchers used the University of Southern
California Tumor Registry, which is notified as soon as a patient in
Los Angeles County receives a diagnosis of cancer.

They limited the study to people under age 60. "If you were born
prior to 1940, you were unlikely to be exposed to marijuana use
during your teens and 20s--the time of peak marijuana use," Dr.
Tashkin said. People who were exposed to marijuana use in their
youth are just now getting to the age when cancer typically starts
to develop, he added.

Subjects were asked about lifetime use of marijuana, tobacco and
alcohol, as well as other drugs, their diet, occupation, family
history of cancer and socioeconomic status. The subjects' reported
use of marijuana was similar to that found in other surveys, Dr.
Tashkin noted.

The heaviest smokers in the study had smoked more than 22,000
marijuana cigarettes, or joints, while moderately heavy smokers had
smoked between 11,000 to 22,000 joints. Even these smokers did not
have an increased risk of developing cancer. People who smoked more
marijuana were not at any increased risk compared with those who
smoked less marijuana or none at all.

The study found that 80% of lung cancer patients and 70% of patients
with head and neck cancer had smoked tobacco, while only about half
of patients with both types of cancer smoked marijuana.

There was a clear association between smoking tobacco and cancer.
The study found a 20-fold increased risk of lung cancer in people
who smoked two or more packs of cigarettes a day. The more tobacco a
person smoked, the greater the risk of developing both lung cancer
and head and neck cancers, findings that were consistent with many
previous studies.

The new findings are surprising for several reasons, Dr. Tashkin
said. Previous studies have shown that marijuana tar contains about
50% higher concentrations of chemicals linked to lung cancer,
compared with tobacco tar, he noted. Smoking a marijuana cigarette
deposits four times more tar in the lungs than smoking an equivalent
amount of tobacco. "Marijuana is packed more loosely than tobacco,
so there's less filtration through the rod of the cigarette, so more
particles will be inhaled," Dr. Tashkin said. "And marijuana smokers
typically smoke differently than tobacco smokers--they hold their
breath about four times longer, allowing more time for extra fine
particles to deposit in the lung."

One possible explanation for the new findings, he said, is that THC,
a chemical in marijuana smoke, may encourage aging cells to die
earlier and therefore be less likely to undergo cancerous
transformation.

The next step, Dr. Tashkin says, is to study the DNA samples of the
subjects, to see whether there are some heavy marijuana users who
may be at increased risk of developing cancer if they have a genetic
susceptibility for cancer.


Visibility: Everyone
Posted: Friday May 26, 2006, 2:00 am
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Terry L. (76) 		Friday May 26, 2006, 2:06 am
Wow. This is terrific news!

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Jennifer Martino
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