Improving Quality of Life During Chemotherapy: Cannabinoids, Cryotherapy, and Scalp Cooling

This review discusses emerging strategies to manage and prevent chemotherapy-induced side effects that impact patients' quality of life, such as nausea, peripheral neuropathy, and alopecia. Integrative medicine, including cannabis, shows promise for chemotherapy-induced nausea and anorexia. While no pharmaceutical agents are approved for preventing peripheral neuropathy, small trials indicate benefits from cryotherapy, compression therapy, and cryocompression therapy, though tolerability remains a concern. Scalp cooling has been effective and tolerable in randomized studies, significantly reducing chemotherapy-induced alopecia. Overall, these strategies aim to enhance the quality of life for cancer patients by mitigating the adverse effects of chemotherapy.