00:00 Lee's spent his life in the sun.
00:02 I would have had well over 100 skin cancers cut off in that time,
00:10 probably closer to 200.
00:12 Four of those were melanomas, the most dangerous skin cancer.
00:16 Never wore a hat, never wore sunscreen, and this is the result.
00:22 Lee's undergone nearly every treatment possible, but remains optimistic.
00:27 That one there, that is a melanoma that they removed.
00:32 I've had radiation in every area of my head, and the doctors have said there is no more.
00:40 My wife worries all the time about my melanomas that pop up and things like that,
00:44 but I have a different philosophy.
00:46 Treating melanomas often involves invasive procedures like surgery or radiation therapy.
00:52 But new research from Charles Darwin University and RMIT offers a glimmer of hope.
00:58 They've found that a specific extract from the cannabis sativa plant has a deadly effect on melanoma cells.
01:05 We're talking about malignant melanoma, which is a fatal condition of skin cancer.
01:11 It's a discovery that could change the way melanomas are treated.
01:15 It works by forcing the cell to go to what we call a "treatment phase".
01:20 It's forcing the cell to go to what we call a "programmed cell death" or apoptosis.
01:25 And that's, for us, as an initial study done in a lab condition, it's a great result.
01:33 The effects of cannabis will still need to be tested on animals, and then it'll go to human trials.
01:39 But for people like Lee, other options to surgery are welcome.
01:44 If I didn't have to have things cut out of me, we should have known about this 10 years ago.
01:48 Surviving, but running out of options.
01:51 Lee hopes a new treatment isn't too far away.
01:55 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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