John McCain Diagnosed With Brain Cancer

Just days after John McCain had a blood clot removed above his left eye, late on Wednesday his office announced that McCain has a brain tumor associated with the removed blood clot. In a statement doctors revealed that McCain has been diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer. The statement says the 80-year-old senator and his family are reviewing further treatment, including a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.

The tumor was revealed after surgery to remove blood clot, with the statement noting that "scanning done since the procedure (a minimally invasive craniotomy with an eyebrow incision) shows that the tissue of concern was completely resected by imaging criteria."

Doctors say that "the Senator"s doctors say he is recovering from his surgery "amazingly well" and his underlying health is excellent."

Full statement below:

STATEMENT FROM THE OFFICE OF SENATOR JOHN McCAIN

"On Friday, July 14, Sen. John McCain underwent a procedure to remove a blood clot from above his left eye at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix. Subsequent tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumor known as a glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot.

"Scanning done since the procedure (a minimally invasive craniotomy with an eyebrow incision) shows that the tissue of concern was completely resected by imaging criteria.

"The Senator and his family are reviewing further treatment options with his Mayo Clinic care team. Treatment options may include a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.

"The Senator"s doctors say he is recovering from his surgery "amazingly well" and his underlying health is excellent."

The office of Senator John McCain also released the following statement:

"Senator McCain appreciates the outpouring of support he has received over the last few days. He is in good spirits as he continues to recover at home with his family in Arizona. He is grateful to the doctors and staff at Mayo Clinic for their outstanding care, and is confident that any future treatment will be effective. Further consultations with Senator McCain"s Mayo Clinic care team will indicate when he will return to the United States Senate."

McCain has previously overcome cancer. He revealed in 2008 during his presidential campaign that he had four malignant melanomas removed in surgeries in 1993, 2000 and 2002.

His daughter, Meghan McCain, she said that "the news of my father"s illness has affected every one of us in the McCain family. My grandmother, mother, brothers, sister and I have all endured the shock of the news and now we live with the anxiety about what comes next."

Statement regarding my father @SenJohnMcCain: pic.twitter.com/SMte9Hkwkq

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) July 20, 2017

Mitch McConnell also commented on the diagnosis, saying that McCain "never shied from a fight…he will face this challenge with the same extraordinary courage that has characterized his life"

McConnell: McCain "never shied from a fight…he will face this challenge with the same extraordinary courage that has characterized his life" pic.twitter.com/CndqEiy60j

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) July 20, 2017

And former President Obama.

John McCain is an American hero & one of the bravest fighters I"ve ever known. Cancer doesn"t know what it"s up against. Give it hell, John.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 20, 2017

Groundbreaking Study Confirms Cannabis Has ‘Significant’ Effect on Killing Cancer Cells

Leukemia has a new foe — one reviled by the U.S. DEA, loved as a tool for law enforcement profiteering, and purposely maligned by Big Pharma — cannabis.

A new study found that, in combination with traditional chemotherapy, cannabinoids — the active compounds in cannabis — significantly improved treatment of leukemia.

Adding cannabinoid therapy to a traditional cancer treatment regimen meant doctors could lower the dose of chemotherapy while minimizing its oft-debilitating side effects, such as nausea.

Researchers also found the order in which the two medicines were administered proffered different results — more cancer cells die, or experience apoptosis, when cannabinoids follow chemotherapy.

“We have shown for the first time that the order in which cannabinoids and chemotherapy are used is crucial in determining the overall effectiveness of this treatment,” explained Dr. Wai Liu of St. George’s, University of London, and lead author of the study, quoted by the Daily Mail.

Cannabis has long been touted as efficacious in alleviating nausea and vomiting associated with rigorous chemotherapy treatment — but this study marks a groundbreaking foray into the study of the plant as a potentially curative medicine.

Liu deemed cannabinoids a “very exciting prospect in the oncology.”

Researchers sought to analyze the effects of various cannabinoids — specifically THC, the compound known for giving recreational users a ‘high,’ as well as CBD, or cannabidiol — on leukemia cells and whether the order in which the plant compounds and two common chemotherapy drugs, cytarabine and vincristine, are given would impact results.

According to the study, published in the International Journal of Oncology:

“In addition to the well-known palliative effects of cannabinoids on some cancer-associated symptoms, a large body of evidence shows that these molecules can decrease tumour growth in animal models of cancer. They do so by modulating key cell signalling pathways involved in the control of cancer cell proliferation and survival. In addition, cannabinoids inhibit angiogenesis and decrease metastasis in various tumour types in laboratory animals.”

READ MORE:  Only Six Days After Starting Cannabis Oil, This Little Girl"s Leukemia Went into Remission

Taken after chemotherapy, cannabinoids “can increase the cancer cell-killing effects of the chemotherapy and decrease the growth of new tumor cells and tumor-feeding blood vessels,” UPROXX reports.

“These extracts are highly concentrated and purified,” Liu elaborates, “so smoking marijuana will not have a similar effect.”

Most momentously for advocates of medical cannabis, the team found phytocannabinoids indeed display significant “anticancer activity” — even when used as sole treatment against the disease.

Further analysis and study must be completed, however,

“Studies such as ours serve to establish the best ways that they should be used to maximise a therapeutic effect,” Liu said.

Leukemia wasn’t the only cancer studied by the researchers — glioblastoma, the most aggressive brain cancer, may also be significantly impacted by the introduction of cannabinoids, should promising animal testing be ultimately translatable for treatment in humans.

This study adds to the evidence as presented by the National Cancer Institute as well. As the Free Thought Project previously reported, the government agency recently acknowledged the power of cannabis to kill cancer cells which is backed up by laboratory tests.

“Cannabis has been shown to kill cancer cells in the laboratory,” states the cancer.gov website. 

But, in order for swaths of patients in the United States to even dream of eradicating their leukemia, cannabis prohibition — existent primarily for the highly politicized agenda of criminalizing the antiwar left, African-Americans, and, earlier, jazz musicians — must be lifted.

Perhaps the steepest obstacle to ending cannabis prohibition rests with the lucrative pharmaceutical industry, whose societally-established drugs for treating cancer rake in billions each year.

As long as the astonishingly beneficial plant remains out of reach for many U.S. patients, any future cannabinoid additions to chemotherapy could theoretically find the user fined or locked in a cage.

Dr. Liu and his team conclude the abstract of their promising by imploring immediate further examination of their results, stating,

“Given that cannabinoids show an acceptable safety profile, clinical trials testing them as single drugs or, ideally, in combination therapies in glioblastoma and other types of cancer are both warranted and urgently needed.”

READ MORE:  WATCH: Fmr Cop With Severe Parkinson"s Tries Cannabis Treatment for First Time

Now, only the dollar signs blinding the U.S. government and Big Pharma to the indisputable benefits of cannabis stand between cancer sufferers and relief.