Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a subset of cancer-related pain that remains difficult to manage due to its intricate pathophysiology. As cancer survivorship improves, an increasing number of patients live with long-term CIPN, with a significantly reduced quality of life. As it stands, treating CIPN is extremely difficult due to the lack of thorough understanding behind the pathophysiology, as well as the lack of effective and regenerative therapies that offer more than just symptom masking. This highlights the need to explore novel therapeutic avenues for more effective solutions. After decades of stigma, psychedelics are re-emerging as promising therapeutic agents with significant potential to revolutionise pain management. This narrative review provides an overview of current pain management strategies and their limitations in addressing cancer-related pain. It further examines the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, highlighting the rationale behind their proposed use and incorporation into existing oncology care frameworks. In summary, current analgesics lack a holistic approach to managing pain. Psychedelics provide a novel option with great potential to address critical gaps in current treatment approaches.
Yap et al. (2026) studied this question.