Indiana University

Marijuana Linked to Testicular Cancer

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Air date: October 18, 2009

Host: David Crabb, MD

Cancer Men's & Women's Health Research
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Interview: Stephen Schwartz, PhD
Epidemiologist, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Wa



Marijuana may not be as addictive as harder drugs, but a new study finds that men with testicular cancer were 70% more likely to be marijuana users, indicating that smoking the plant may increase the risk for testicular cancer.

That work was done by Dr. Stephen Schwartz, who is an epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. The study was supported by the NIH and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

He discusses his research with Sound Medicine’s Dr. David Crabb.

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Teeth Whitening wrote on November 4th 2009 6:11 AM

A great research ..But How can marijuana be useful to treat any disease..

Pam wrote on October 19th 2009 2:07 PM

Neil raises a very good point. We will add info to our web site about who funded the study.

Neal Smith wrote on October 18th 2009 5:04 PM

There is no mention of who funded or commissioned this study. The study also has a rather small test group, in a small locality. It is fairly well known that ingredients in some pesticides are suspicioned as causing testicular cancer. There are several peer reviewed, replicated studies showing Marijuana may hold the key to a cancer cure. If you go to: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7500 you will find a brief discussion and links to further information showing Marijuana is of benefit in treating cancer. I find it odd that Marijuana would slow the growth or kill some cancer cells and not others. It is also interesting that studies funded by the U.S. government (National Institute on Drug Abuse most notably)always are negative. I have also found that studies done overseas or funded independently are less prone to negative results and are usually much more accurate. I also find it interesting that the media in the U.S. fails to report positive information about Marijuana, but hurries in its efforts to present negative information, without supplying enough information for the study to be checked out directly.