"The use of Medical Cannabis for Treating Cancer Related Symptoms in Oncology Patients"

Many comorbidities are associated with oncology diseases. In cancer, the associated symptoms include pain, anxiety, depression, insomnia, decreased in quality of life, increased disability and negative effects on sexuality.

These symptoms are some of the most fundamental causes of suffering and disability for oncology patients while undergoing therapies, and some may even lead to worse prognosis.

Traditionally, cancer-related pain is mainly treated by opioid analgesics but a promising substitute for opioid-based medication is Medical Cannabis (MC) and Cannabinoid treatment for cancer-related pain is generally recognized as safe!

Despite the fact that there is a knowledge gap in the study of Cannabis, especially for treating cancer-related pain, a 2020 study showed that most cancer patients requested MC treatment from their oncologist.

The Adverse Effects (AEs) from cannabinoids for cancer treatment are generally well tolerated by the patients and categorized as mild to moderate and the most frequent AEs are memory impairment, drowsiness, nausea, vomiting and xerostomia (dry mouth).

The Study...

This long-term study was conducted between January 2019 and September 2021 in Israel and pulished in Frontiers in Pain Research on 20 May 2022.

The institutional Ethics Committee of Haemek Medical Center and Galil Medical Center also approved the study.

Researchers conducted a multi-center, prospective, 6-month longitudinal study that followed up on the effectiveness and safety parameters of MC treatment for cancer-associated symptoms.

"Cannabis & Chemotherapy Side Effects"

When it comes to chemotherapy, medical cannabis is primarily used to treat the common side effects including nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite and pain. 

Here’s what you need to know about how medical cannabis can support you or a loved one during chemo. 

The 2 majors cannabinoids THC & CBD have shown to effectively reduce the nausea and vomiting that often occurs during and after chemotherapy treatments.

For example, THC seems to cause the "high" reported by marijuana users, and also can help relieve pain and nausea, reduce inflammation, and can act as an antioxidant.

Cannabidiol (CBD) can help treat seizures, can reduce anxiety and paranoia, and can counteract the "high" caused by THC.

In this point, you will allow me to emphasize that the researches about cannabis & chemotherapy so far suggests that it is the synergy of all cannabinoids together that has the greatest results for patients but lets see what the experts say about it...

Doctor’s 25 years of research shows cancer patients live 4X longer by refusing chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is one of the most expensive medical treatments in the world today, but is it actually…effective? Thanks to alternative media and documentaries like the ‘Truth About Cancer’ series, more and more people are beginning to question not only its efficacy, but also whether it actually does more harm than good.

Believe it or not that questioned may have been answered more than 40 years ago, when a shocking study was released that could have ended the chemo experiment — if anyone had been paying attention.

Dr. Hardin B. Jones, a former Professor of Medical Physics and Physiology at Berkeley, California, concluded after over 25 years of research not only that chemotherapy, radiation and surgery do not work and do not prolong a cancer patient’s life, but patients receiving these types of oncological treatments in many cases die much sooner than those who choose to be untreated. Treated patients also die a much more painful death.

“People who refused chemotherapy treatment live an average of 12 and a half years longer than the people who are receiving chemotherapy,” wrote Dr. Jones in the journal of the New York Academy of Sciences.

"I Tried Medical Cannabis During Chemo, and Here’s What Happened"

Health and wellness touch everyone’s life differently. This is one person’s story.

At the age of 23, my world was completely flipped upside down. Just 36 days before I was planning to walk down the aisle, I was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer.

Before receiving my diagnosis, I was a fitness social media influencer, with a YouTube channeland Instagram account that chronicled my fitness regimen and my journey to my first National Physique Committee competition. How could a very healthy and active 23-year-old woman’s world flip upside down in a matter of seconds like this?

"The Antiemetic effect of THC in patients receiving cancer chemotherapy"

Anecdotal accounts suggested that smoking marihuana decreases the nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapeutic agents.

In a study published in 16 Oct 1975 from 'The New England Journal of Medicine', oral THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) was compared with placebo in a controlled, randomized, "double-blind" experiment. 


All patients were receiving chemotherapeutic drugs known to cause nausea and vomiting of central origin. Each patient was to serve as his own control to determine whether tetrahydrocannabinol had an antiemetic effect. Twenty-two patients entered the study, 20 of whom were evaluable. For all patients an antiemetic effect was observed in 14 of 20 tetrahydrocannabinol courses and in none of 22 placebo courses. 

For patients completing the study, response occurred in 12 of 15 courses of tetrahydrocannabinol and in none of 14 courses of placebo. No patient vomited while experiencing a subjective "high." 

Oral tetrahydrocannabinol has antiemetic properties and is significantly better than a placebo in reducing vomiting caused by chemotherapeutic agents.

"Just realize that this study is from 1975... but still we searching for evidence"

Source: https://www.nejm.org

"Study Discover The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids"

In March 2016, the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) was asked to convene a committee of experts to conduct a comprehensive review of the literature regarding the health effects of using cannabis and/or its constituents that had appeared since the publication of the 1999 IOM report Marijuana and Medicine. 

-The resulting Committee on the Health Effects of Marijuana consisted of 16 experts in the areas of marijuana, addiction, oncology, cardiology, neurodevelopment, respiratory disease, pediatric and adolescent health, immunology, toxicology, preclinical research, epidemiology, systematic review, and public health.


Given the large scientific literature on cannabis, the breadth of the statement of task, and the time constraints of the study, the committee developed an approach that resulted in giving primacy to recently published systematic reviews (since 2011) and high-quality primary research for 11 groups of health endpoints. For each health endpoint, systematic reviews were identified and assessed for quality using published criteria. Only fair- and good-quality reviews were considered by the committee. 

Chemotherapy Side Effects: Cannabinoids and CBD Research Overview

Chemotherapy can cause several, sometimes debilitating, side effects. Studies have shown cannabinoids can make the adverse effects more manageable.

Chemotherapy is a category of cancer treatment that uses strong drugs, administered orally or intravenously.

There are more than 100 chemotherapy drugs that are used in the treatment of cancer. The drugs prevent cancer from spreading to other parts of the body, slow the growth of tumors, and kill cancer cells.




While chemotherapy can be effective against cancer, it does cause sometimes-serious side effects.

Overview of Chemotherapy Side Effects

The side effects from chemotherapy develop because the chemotherapy drugs that attack cancerous cells also damage normal, healthy cells. Common side effects associated with chemotherapy are fever and chills, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, sore mouth, diarrhea, constipation, loss of appetite that can lead to anorexia, pain or difficulty with swallowing, swelling in the hands or feet, itching, shortness of breath, cough, and muscle or joint pain.

Individuals undergoing chemotherapy won’t necessarily experience all side effects and the severity of the side effects varies greatly from person to person. Most side effects will gradually go away after completion of the treatment.

Effects of Cannabinoids and CBD on Chemotherapy Side Effects

Cannabinoids have shown to effectively reduce the nausea and vomiting that often occurs during and after chemotherapy treatments. Studies have found that one of the major cannabinoids found in cannabis, cannabidiol (CBD), is effective at treating the more difficult to control symptoms of nausea, as well as preventing anticipatory nausea in chemotherapy patients. Another study found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), another major cannabinoid found in cannabis, is also effective at reducing conditioned rejection and chemotherapy-induced nausea.

Cannabis and chemotherapy

By Cristina Sánchez
In the case of cancer patients, the specific question is whether cannabis can be used during periods of chemo-, immuno-, hormone and radiotherapy. Unfortunately, not enough clinical trials have yet been conducted to allow for a categorical answer. In these circumstances, patients are faced with the option of waiting for the results of high-quality clinical trials (without even knowing who might be willing to conduct such research or when) or weighing up the known and potential risks and benefits and act in consequence. In this article, we shall try to summarise the information currently available, to allow patients and doctors to take the best course of action for each individual case.

How Medical Cannabis Can Helps Chemotherapy Side Effects

How Medicall Cannabis may be able to complement chemotherapy treatment?

Cannabinoids have shown to effectively reduce the nausea and vomiting that often occurs during and after chemotherapy treatments.

The National Cancer Institute, an organization run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, recognizes cannabis as an effective treatment for providing relief of a number of symptoms associated with cancer and chemotherapy treatments

A survey of 131 cancer patients participating in cannabis treatments for six to eight weeks reported significant improvements in all of the measured symptoms, including apoptosis,nausea, vomiting, mood disorders, fatigue, weight loss, anorexia, constipation, sexual function, sleep disorders, itching, and pain. Patients treated with THC have also been shown to experience a higher quality of sleep and relaxation.