A study from researchers at the Creighton University School of Medicine found that lung cancer patients who smoked marijuana and tobacco were diagnosed with the condition 2.8 years earlier than those who smoked tobacco but not marijuana. A preprint of the results explained that “these findings signal a potential synergistic carcinogenic effect of tobacco and marijuana smoke and warrant further exploration into the role that marijuana plays in cancer progression.”
The study, based on electronic medical records from a health system in Nebraska, further found that “patients who only smoked marijuana averaged higher odds of having a higher-staged cancer at diagnosis compared to both patients who only smoked tobacco…and patients who smoked both tobacco and marijuana.”
The researchers concluded, “as the prevalence of marijuana use continues to rise, further research into the lung cancer risk that it poses is warranted, as this could impact screening guidelines in the future.”
This study contributes to our understanding of the link between marijuana and cancer, which is likely driven by the presence of cancer-causing carcinogens in marijuana smoke.