Patient question · asked by Anonymous reader · September 17, 2026
Does cannabis help with nausea during chemotherapy?
I am starting chemotherapy next month and I am already nauseous just thinking about it. Does cannabis actually help with that, or is it wishful thinking?
Patient question: I am starting chemotherapy next month and I am already nauseous just thinking about it. Does cannabis actually help with that, or is it wishful thinking? For nausea that persists despite standard anti-sickness medicine, there is real evidence it helps. In a randomised trial, adding a THC:CBD capsule to the usual regimen raised.
Dr. Caplan & CED Research Response
For nausea that persists despite standard anti-sickness medicine, there is real evidence it helps. In a randomised trial, adding a THC:CBD capsule to the usual regimen raised the proportion of people who got through five days with no vomiting and no rescue medication from 8% to 24%. That is a meaningful improvement, though it still leaves most people needing more.
The important detail is that this was tested as an addition to guideline-standard antiemetics, not as a replacement for them. Nearly everyone in the trial was also taking a corticosteroid and a 5-HT3 antagonist, and most an NK-1 antagonist as well. The cannabis was doing work that those medicines had not managed on their own.
The side effects were not trivial: sedation in 18% versus 7% on placebo, dizziness in 10% versus none, and transient anxiety in 4% versus 1%. No serious adverse events were attributed to it. For someone already exhausted by chemotherapy, added sedation is worth weighing rather than waving away.
This is a conversation to have with your oncology team before your first cycle, partly because timing matters - in the trial, dosing started the day before chemotherapy.
The study behind this answer
Oral Cannabis Extract for Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Phase II/III Trial (Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2024) · PubMed 39151115
More on Cancer More on Nausea More on Vomiting
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Reviewed by Dr. Caplan on September 17, 2026.
This answer is general education. It is not medical advice and does not create a doctor-patient relationship. For care specific to you, book a consultation. In an emergency, call 911.