Advancing cannabis-based treatment for ovarian cancer
Every year, more than 325,000 women worldwide are
diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
moved in decades
among women
middle-income countries where
Statistics: GLOBOCAN 2022, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO); World Cancer Research Fund; World Ovarian Cancer Coalition.
We’re not talking about symptom management.
We’re talking about treatment of the disease.
Canna Onc Research was founded to investigate the potential for cannabis to treat ovarian cancer. Our preclinical studies identified a specific combination of cannabis compounds that kill ovarian cancer cells and may inhibit tumor growth..
Most cases are caught late.
Current treatments including surgery and platinum-based chemotherapy are aggressive, often debilitating, and for too many patients, ultimately insufficient.
When most people hear "cannabis and cancer," they think about symptom management: nausea, pain, appetite. That's a real use, and oncologists increasingly recognize it.
But that's not what this is about.
There’s real biology here. It’s time to lean into serious clinical research on cannabinoids as a treatment for cancer.
HOW WE GOT HERE
This research began with one woman.
Michelle Kendall was an environmental scientist, a fierce and passionate advocate for science-based solutions to the world’s problems. For most of her career, that meant protecting ecosystems. When she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, she turned that same intensity toward a different kind of problem.
She started reading the literature. She talked to researchers, oncologists, and patients. She saw a gap in the science between what early cannabis research was suggesting and what anyone was willing to fund and said, “We need to fill this gap.”
So she did. She made a documentary film about the regulatory barriers keeping cannabis research from reaching patients. She went to conferences and buttonholed everyone who would listen, asking the same question: Who’s working on ovarian cancer, and how do we move this forward? And finally, she cashed out her retirement savings to fund a three-year PhD research program at the Volcani Center in Israel, one of the world’s leading agricultural research institutions.
This is not one woman’s survival story. This is one woman’s legacy.
Michelle passed away before the research she funded was complete. But the work didn’t stop. The results that came back from her investment were more compelling than anyone anticipated.
Michelle Kendall
Research, Volcani
Center — Israel
Lorem Ipsum
WATCH THE FILM
Schedule 1
A documentary short about cannabis and cancer, told through Michelle's story and the science she set in motion.
“I’m Bruce Kendall. Michelle was my wife. I’m an ecologist by training, a PhD scientist who has spent thirty years in academic research. I supported Michelle through her illness, and I supported her vision for this project. But somewhere along the way, as I started learning the science myself, I had my own realization.
There’s real biology here. This is not woo-woo, new- age medicine. We just haven’t done enough science yet.
I came to this work through love. I stay in it because the data warrants it.”
By 2050, global cases are projected to reach nearly 477,000 per year, with deaths rising to over 336,000.
Projections: Bray et al., “Global burden of gynaecological cancers in 2022 and projections to 2050,” The
Lancet, 2024; GLOBOCAN 2022 (IARC/WHO).
This research is for every one of those women.
WHAT THE SCIENCE FOUND
What follows is grounded in peer-reviewed, published research. We’re careful
to stay with what the data actually shows: not speculation, not extrapolation.
4 published papers. Real results.
Researchers at the Volcani Center identified a fraction (designated F7) from a cannabis cultivar containing a precise combination of THC, CBC, CBG, and trace amounts of other bioactive compounds. In laboratory studies, this fraction induced programmed cell death (apoptosis) in ovarian cancer cells through the CB2 cannabinoid receptor.
This is not whole-plant cannabis. It’s a specific, reproducible combination of compounds with a specific mechanism of action.
When combined with niraparib, a PARP inhibitor already approved for ovarian cancer treatment, the cannabis fraction showed synergistic effects. The combination was more effective at killing cancer cells than either compound alone. This suggests a potential role as a complementary treatment alongside existing therapies, not a replacement for them.
Gene expression analysis revealed that the F7 fraction affects several critical cancer pathways at once, including the Hippo/Wnt signaling pathway, TGF-β, and MAPK pathways. In plain language: these compounds don’t just attack cancer cells through one mechanism. They interfere with the signaling systems that cancer cells use to grow, survive, and resist treatment.
The research found evidence of anti- angiogenesis activity and the compounds appear to inhibit the formation of new blood vessels that tumors need to grow and spread. Through disruption of F-actin structures and focal adhesion pathways, the F7 fraction may help prevent the kind of regrowth and metastasis that makes ovarian cancer so difficult to treat.
Intellectual Property
These discoveries are protected via patents filed by the Volcani Institute. Canna Onc Research holds an exclusive worldwide license to the specific cannabinoid compounds and their effects on ovarian cancer. We also hold a non-exclusive worldwide license to the broader research know-how developed at the Volcani Center.
WHAT THE SCIENCE FOUND
Bruce Kendall, PhD
Co-Founder, Canna Onc Research
Bruce spent thirty years in academic science: quantitative ecology, population dynamics, and data-driven research to support biodiversity conservation and sustainable fisheries. He has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications. He’s not an oncologist or a pharmacologist, or even an entrepreneur. What he brings is scientific rigor, intellectual discipline, and a deep commitment to getting this right. He’s just retired from his academic career, which gives him the space to commit fully to stewarding this research to the next stage. That’s what he intends to do.
“My involvement in this project has evolved from supporting Michelle in her passion, to carrying forward her legacy, to a sincere belief that cannabinoid oncology has the potential to open a new frontier in the fight against cancer. At the same time, I’ve become genuinely excited by the science. When Hinanit first showed me what we could learn from the gene expression results I was, frankly, flabbergasted. Compared to what I’d learned in grad school 30 years ago, the modern understanding of how genes map to proteins to biochemical pathways to disease is remarkable! I feel so fortunate to stand upon this treasure trove of knowledge. Linking this detailed understanding of intra-cellular biochemistry with the regulatory feedbacks of the endocannabinoid system across the entire body will be the next grand challenge in human biology.”
Co-Founder, Canna Onc Research
Bruce Kendall, PhD
Hinanit is a plant scientist at the Volcani Institute whose career spans decades of research into traditional herbal medicines and their scientific mechanisms. She has long been driven by a single question: can we bring the rigor of modern science to compounds that humans have used medicinally for centuries?
She is the author of more than 120 peer-reviewed publications and 30 book chapters. She holds 14 international patents. Hinanit remains committed to the ongoing research program and continues to advise on the scientific direction of the project.
"For decades, my entire career has been driven by a single, uncompromising question: can we bring the absolute rigor of modern molecular science to the plant-based medicines humanity has relied on for centuries? Canna Onc Research is the culmination of that lifelong pursuit. This isn't just an academic exercise for me; it is my legacy project, born from a foundational desire to genuinely help people and ease suffering. I am deeply committed to guiding our ongoing research program and directing its scientific strategy because we are on the cusp of something highly important, I believe. We are no longer just observing the potential therapeutic effects of these compounds—we are unlocking their precise mechanisms at the cellular level. To see decades of peer-reviewed theories and international patents finally crystallize into targeted, life-changing science is profoundly thrilling. This is exactly why I became a scientist, and I believe this work will have a tremendously meaningful impact on human health."
WHERE WE ARE NOW
Drug development follows a well-established path.
Here’s where this research sits:
"Cancer drug development is
incremental. We're not claiming to
end ovarian cancer. We're working to
expand the toolkit that patients and
physicians have to fight it."
--- Bruce Kendall
THE PATH FORWARD
Two routes to bring
this to patients
Build in-house
Build the team and
infrastructure to run trials
directly.
License to a partner
Partner with established pharmaceutical or biotech
companies.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
Let’s Talk
If you’ve read this far, you already understand why this matters.
The science is published. The intellectual property is secured. The next steps forward require a broader pool of expertise and resources than any one person can bring.
We’re looking for partners, investors, and advisors who are excited about developing these discoveries into a treatment for patients.
Do you want to help expand the toolkit for physicians and patients fighting ovarian cancer?