How Medical Cannabis Could Help Patients With Head and Neck Cancer

Medical cannabis can be effective in managing chronic pain, nausea, vomiting, and anxiety in cancer patients through interaction with the endocannabinoid system. For head and neck cancer specifically, it may address the complex symptom burden including dysphagia, xerostomia, and cachexia that are exacerbated by both the disease and treatments like radiation and chemotherapy.

Narrative review exploring the role of the endocannabinoid system and medical cannabis in managing symptoms and improving outcomes for head and neck cancer patients.

Head and neck cancers cause uniquely debilitating symptoms that affect eating, speaking, and breathing. Current symptom management is often inadequate, and medical cannabis represents an additional tool that targets multiple symptoms through a single mechanism.

While medical cannabis is increasingly used in oncology, head and neck cancer patients face a particularly severe symptom burden that is often undertreated. Integrating cannabis into supportive care could address multiple symptoms simultaneously rather than requiring separate medications for each.

Narrative review format, which does not systematically assess evidence quality. Most cannabis-cancer evidence comes from general oncology rather than head-and-neck-specific studies. Dosing and formulation guidance remains limited.