by Sanjukta Mondal, Medical Xpress

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The use of medical cannabis or marijuana for managing cancer-related symptoms such as pain, appetite loss and nausea has long been contested. The path to reaching a scientific consensus was obstructed by research restrictions posed by the classification of cannabis as a Schedule I controlled substance.

A recent study systematically reviewed over 10, 000 peer-reviewed research papers on cannabis and various health outcomes and found strong agreement regarding the therapeutic usage of medical cannabis in the context of cancer. Cannabis has not only shown positive results in managing cancer-related symptoms due to its anti-inflammatory properties, but also in treating the disease as an anticarcinogenic agent.

This is one of the largest cannabis studies to date, and its findings are published in Frontiers in Oncology.

Cannabis contains several chemical compounds called cannabinoids, and the two most widely studied ones are tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD).

These cannabinoids interact with the chemical receptors in our body's endocannabinoid system—a signaling system that regulates functions such as memory, emotional processing, sleep and pain control—resulting in therapeutic effects in terms of cancer treatment and symptom management.

While there is a sizable body of research on cannabis's effects in cancer treatment, there is a lack of unified understanding owing to the broad and diverse nature of the research conducted.

Sentiment analysis assessed the occurrence of terms associated with three sentiment categories: support, not supported, and unclear. Credit: Frontiers in Oncology (2025). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2025.1490621

To reach a cohesive conclusion about the therapeutic potential of cannabis, researchers from the Whole Health Oncology Institute and the Chopra Foundation brought together a wide range of studies—randomized trials, observational research, and case reports—covering everything from easing chemotherapy side effects to investigating its role as a possible anticancer agent.

The researchers, with the help of AI, evaluated data from over 10, 000 peer-reviewed research papers consisting of 39, 767 data points related to cannabis and various health outcomes. They employed natural language processing, which is a machine learning technology that enables computers to understand human language, to perform sentiment analysis and categorize opinions on the medical use of cannabis in cancer care.

The findings revealed the overwhelming consensus in favor of using medical cannabis for improving health, treating cancer, and managing cancer progression. Overall, the support for medical cannabis was found to be over 31 times stronger than that of not-supported sentiments, and over 36 times stronger than unclear sentiments.

The researchers suggest cannabis should be re-evaluated within the medical community as a treatment option. They also highlight that the outcomes of this study could guide future public health research and influence clinical practice and discussions surrounding the legal status of medical cannabis.

More information: Ryan D. Castle et al, Meta-analysis of medical cannabis outcomes and associations with cancer, Frontiers in Oncology (2025). DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1490621

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