Cannabis and Cancer Patients: What a Kentucky Study Reveals, and Why It Matters for India
A survey of 237 cancer patients in Kentucky found half had tried cannabis, mostly for pain and nausea, while some still feared telling their doctors. Here's what it reveals and why it matters for India.
Picture a radiation clinic in the hills of Kentucky. Every day, for weeks, patients walk in, lie still under a machine for a few minutes, and walk out. Most of the fight happens outside that room: the pain that won't settle, the nausea, the sleepless nights, the fear.
A team at the University of Kentucky noticed something. Their patients were quietly using cannabis, and many weren't telling anyone. So they decided to ask, honestly and without judgment.
How they asked
Between July 2023 and February 2024, the team surveyed 237 adults receiving radiation. Some came from an urban centre, some from a rural satellite clinic. The 47 question survey ran on a tablet, with no research staff hovering nearby. Patients got a $30 gift card and full anonymity. The authors believe this is the first oncology survey of its kind run entirely this way in a rural setting.
What they found
- 121 of 237 patients (51%) had used cannabis at some point in their lives.
- 35 patients (14.7%) were recent users, meaning use after their cancer diagnosis and within a month of the survey.
- Most of them already used it before cancer. 30 of the 35 did.
- The most common form was THC, used by about 71%. Most smoked it, and nearly half ate it in brownies, cookies or candy.
- Pain was the number one reason, followed by nausea, anxiety and depression.
Did it help?
Patients thought so. 28 of the 35 recent users (80%) felt at least a little better in their main symptom, and 31 (88.6%) felt their quality of life improved. The rest reported no change. Nobody reported feeling worse in these questions.
But here is the honest part. These are the patients' own perceptions, not a controlled trial. Recent users actually reported higher pain scores than non users (4.2 vs 2.8 out of 10). The authors suggest that people in more pain, or with poor access to specialists, may be the ones reaching for it. It shows what patients are doing and what they feel.
The hidden struggle
- 71% said they could not get cannabis legally.
- 12 of 35 (34%) travelled out of Kentucky to find it, to states like Michigan, Illinois and Ohio.
- 60% got it through friends or family alone, and some spent up to $400 per ounce, which is heavy in a rural economy.
Urban vs rural
Cannabis use was clearly higher among urban patients (21% at the urban centre vs 8.5% at the rural centre). The authors note the study was small and the group racially homogeneous, so we should be careful about reading too much into it.
The conversation that's missing
Most recent users (77%) said their doctor knew, and 85% of those felt supported. But the ones who hadn't told their team feared legal trouble, having it written in their medical chart, or simply felt shame. Meanwhile 94% said they'd talk about it if given the chance, most often with their radiation oncologist.
Why this matters to India
This plant is not new to us. For centuries, cannabis, as bhang, ganja and vijaya, has lived in our medicine, our festivals and our worship. Ayurvedic traditions treated it as medicine long before any clinic in Kentucky existed. Then, under Western influence and global drug policy, we gradually pushed our own heritage to the margins and started looking at it with suspicion instead of curiosity. Now Western hospitals are discovering what our elders knew in their own language: that this plant offers comfort to people living through suffering. Studies like this one, recent and honest, are a promising start. For India, with its own traditional knowledge and its own cancer burden, the potential is to study our plant with our own science, carefully and on our own terms. In the Eastern view, healing was never only about removing a symptom. It was about easing the whole person's suffering. This study, in its own way, is asking the same question.
The honest limits
The authors are clear about them: a small group, self reported answers, a survey not yet formally validated, no cancer stage data, and no way to separate medicinal from recreational use. Patients also used opioids (31%), gabapentin (17%) and tobacco (24%) alongside cannabis, which makes cause and effect hard to untangle. The authors found no significant link between these and cannabis use, but warn the study may have been too small to detect one. They also flag that how cannabis interacts with immunotherapy is still unknown. The main American cancer guideline (ASCO) currently supports cannabis only for stubborn chemotherapy nausea alongside standard anti nausea medicines, and says its role elsewhere is uncertain.
The takeaway
Patients in this study are already using cannabis to cope with pain, nausea, anxiety and sleepless nights. Many were open about it. Most said they were comfortable talking to their care team, and 94% said they would discuss it if given the chance. But look closely at the quieter numbers. Some patients had never told their doctor, and when asked why, they spoke of fear of legal trouble, of it being written in their medical chart, and of shame. The stigma is still there. It sits in the background, and it keeps people silent at the very moment when they need guidance the most.
Now think about where this is happening. Kentucky is in the United States, one of the richest and most advanced countries in the world, with some of the best cancer centres anywhere. And still, patients there hesitate to speak about a plant that is legal for medical use in 40 of its states. If this is the situation there, it tells us how deep the silence runs, and how much work is needed to replace secrecy with honest, evidence based care. This study, small and imperfect as it is, took a real initiative. It went to a rural, often overlooked community and listened. The authors even noted that patients were elated that people like them were being studied.
This is where India comes in. This field is still young and wide open, and the world is only now beginning to ask serious questions about cannabis in cancer care. We do not have to start from zero. India carries centuries of lived knowledge with this plant, in our medicine, our homes and our traditions. But it is a powerful reason to ask the questions properly: with well designed studies, careful dosing, and honest attention to safety and drug interactions. India has the heritage, the patients and the scientific talent to do it.
That is the real promise here. Not a miracle, and not a verdict, but the start of an honest conversation: one that lets patients speak without fear, lets doctors learn without prejudice, and lets an old plant finally be studied with the respect and rigour it deserves.
Source and citation
Amoah E, Mourad WF, Randall ME, Yang ES, Shelton BJ, Kaushal A. Cannabis assessment in oncology patients: evaluation survey: understanding usage patterns in a rural radiation cohort in Kentucky. The Oncologist. 2026;31(11):oyag370. https://doi.org/10.1093/oncolo/oyag370 (Open access, CC BY-NC 4.0)
Also referenced in the paper: Braun IM, Bohlke K, Abrams DI, et al. Cannabis and cannabinoids in adults with cancer: ASCO guideline. J Clin Oncol. 2024;42:1575-1593. https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.23.02596
Phenomenal Fact
Bhanga/Vijaya has been crowned as a sacred plant among other five, immortalized in Ātharvaṇa Veda, chapter 11, one of the oldest sciptures, where it is invoked to free us from aṃhas.