What do cancer patients discuss online regarding CINV management? A social media-based topic modeling study

Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) remains a distressing adverse effect that compromises patients' quality of life and treatment adherence. Traditional assessment methods often fail to capture the full scope of patients' real-world experiences. Social media provides unfiltered patient-generated insights into symptom management and unmet needs. This study aimed to identify key themes in CINV-related discussions among cancer patients on Chinese social media platforms using natural language processing.

A total of 8, 227 public posts and comments related to CINV were collected from three major Chinese social media platforms (Weibo, REDnote, Zhihu). The dataset included posts published from January 2020 to December 2025. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling was employed to identify latent topics, followed by qualitative thematic analysis for in-depth interpretation.

Four themes were identified: (1) Emotional Support and Positive Mindset (30.37%), emphasizing encouragement and psychological reinforcement; (2) Symptom Management and Solution Exploration (24.05%), reflecting active pursuit of dietary and behavioral strategies; (3) Drug Knowledge and Experience Sharing (20.81%), highlighting information needs about antiemetic medications; and (4) Acute Symptom Impact and Medical Help-Seeking (24.77%), capturing severe symptom distress and use of social media to seek timely medical guidance.

Patients' online discussions reveal multidimensional CINV management needs beyond pharmacotherapy, including emotional support, practical coping strategies, and medication education. Social media functions as both a peer support platform and an informal resource for symptom monitoring and medical decision-making, highlighting gaps in current clinical care. These findings support the development of patient-centered, digitally informed interventions to optimize CINV management.