“Despite the advent of classic anti-emetics, chemotherapy-induced nausea is still problematic, with vomiting being somewhat better managed in the clinic.
If post-treatment nausea and vomiting are not properly controlled, anticipatory nausea-a conditioned response to the contextual cues associated with illness-inducing chemotherapy-can develop. Once it develops, anticipatory nausea is refractive to current anti-emetics, highlighting the need for alternative treatment options.
One of the first documented medicinal uses of Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ(9)-THC) was for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV), and recent evidence is accumulating to suggest a role for the endocannabinoid system in modulating CINV.
Here, we review studies assessing the therapeutic potential of cannabinoids and manipulations of the endocannabinoid system in human patients and pre-clinical animal models of nausea and vomiting.”