Meta-Analysis Finds Cannabis Should be ‘Re-Evaluated’ As Treatment for Cancer

In a comprehensive review drawing on a dataset of over 10,000 peer-reviewed publications and nearly 40,000 associated data points, the Whole Health Oncology Institute and the Chopra Foundation concluded that ‘cannabis should be re-evaluated within the medical community as a treatment option’.

Its authors continued that their findings had ‘implications for public health research, clinical practice, and discussions surrounding the legal status of medical cannabis’.

Moreover, the consistent correlation strengths for cannabis both as a ‘palliative adjunct’ and as an anti-carcinogenic agent ‘redefine the consensus around cannabis as a medical intervention’.

The study, led by Dr Ryan Castle, applied a novel sentiment analysis methodology, a technique often used in natural language processing to assess subjective information, to classify and quantify the tone and implications of published research related to cannabis and cancer treatment.

Across the board, the sentiment expressed in the scientific literature was overwhelmingly favourable towards cannabis as a medical intervention. The analysis segmented the data into three main categories: general health-related metrics (such as pain, inflammation, appetite and fatigue), cancer treatment outcomes (including chemotherapy tolerance and quality-of-life measures), and cancer progression dynamics (such as tumour proliferation, angiogenesis, and apoptosis).

READ MORE: Cannabis and cancer: everything you need to know

For health metrics, supportive sentiment was strongest in relation to cannabis’ well-documented anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties, which are commonly cited as helping to manage symptoms such as chronic pain, loss of appetite, and sleep disturbances in oncology patients. In this area alone, the analysis found nearly 47 times more supportive sentiment than critical or negative conclusions.

In cancer treatment-specific studies, researchers observed strong indications that cannabis compounds, particularly cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), may help patients better tolerate aggressive therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation. Improvements in pain relief, nausea management, and appetite stimulation were frequently cited, along with enhanced patient-reported outcomes and quality of life. Sentiment supporting these uses was nearly 11 times more prevalent than sentiment expressing concern.

The third focus area, cancer progression and disease dynamics, yielded perhaps the most striking results. Preclinical evidence, drawn primarily from in vitro and in vivo models, consistently pointed to cannabis’ potential to inhibit tumour growth, reduce metastatic spread, and induce programmed cell death in various cancer types.

While the authors caution that much of this work remains preliminary, the analysis revealed that supportive sentiment in this domain was over 30 times more common than critical commentary, suggesting substantial scientific interest in cannabis as a potential adjunctive or even direct anti-tumour agent.