Fenbendazole is an animal deworming drug, one in the broad family of benzimidazole carbamate anthelminthics (which I call Benz). It has been used as a safe dewormer for humans and pets for decades. It is not approved by Health Canada to cure cancer but it has shown promising results in animal studies and two drugs in the class have entered human trials.
Antiparasitic
Fenbendazole is an antiparasitic that is used to treat parasites in animals. It also appears to suppress cancer in lab experiments. It has the potential to kill cancer cells by blocking the proper growth of microtubules. This is a common way that many cancer drugs work.
However, the specialist cancer information nurse at Cancer Research UK said that there isn’t enough evidence that it can cure cancer or is safe for humans. “There is no clinical trial data to prove that it’s a valid cancer treatment,” she said.
Interestingly, the drug was found to activate the intrinsic apoptosis pathway in colorectal cancer cells. This is due to its direct effect on mitochondria, which is an energy factory in all cells. It also induces G2/M cell cycle arrest and increases p21 expression in wild-type cells.
Anti-tumor
There have been several social media posts claiming that fenbendazole, an anti-parasitic drug used in veterinary medicine, cures cancer. These claims have been based on anecdotal accounts of patients who say that their cancer went into remission after they started taking the medication on a veterinarian’s recommendation.
The drug is a broad-spectrum benzimidazole anthelmintic, approved for use in numerous animal species. It exerts its anthelmintic effects by binding to b-tubulin microtubule subunits and disrupting their polymerization. It also has antitumor properties similar to cytotoxic anticancer agents that act on microtubules.
Researchers have found that fenbendazole can slow down the growth of cancer cells in petri dishes and mice. Its effectiveness in treating cancer is partly due to its ability to block the cell’s glucose uptake.
Anti-viral
Researchers have found that anthelmintic drugs, which are used to treat parasitic worms in animals, can have anti-cancer effects in humans. This is due to the similarities between parasitic cells and cancer cells. Anthelmintics can kill cancer cells by targeting multiple cellular pathways.
The results of the study show that fenbendazole has cytotoxic effects against different types of human cancer cell lines. It acts as a moderate microtubule destabilizing agent and causes cancer cell death. It also interferes with glucose metabolism.
The team tested two commercially available brands of fenbendazole, Panacur and Safe-guard. Qualitative analysis by NMR and HPLC revealed that both brands contain the claimed amount of fenbendazole on their labels. Dissolution studies showed that the two brands have formulation issues that hinder their distribution in the human body.
Anti-fungal
Fenbendazole is a widely used anthelmintic drug that is effective against parasitic worms in most animals. It has also been shown to be an effective cancer treatment. This is especially true in cases involving stage four pancreatic cancer. The anti-fungal properties of fenbendazole are due to its ability to deprive cancer cells of oxygen and force them to rely on sugar for energy.
In SNU-C5 and SNU-C5/5-FUR cells, fenbendazole induces necroptosis without affecting p53 expression or activation of RIP and RIP3 kinases. In addition, fenbendazole activates autophagy through Beclin-1 and active caspase-8. It also decreases the expression of GPX4 and suppresses ferroptosis. Immunoblot analysis of autophagy proteins LC3 and Atg7 confirmed this result. Moreover, fenbendazole significantly increased the activity of caspase-8 in both CRC cells.
Immunosuppressant
Although anthelmintic drugs have antiparasitic effects in animals, there are no peer-reviewed studies that prove they can cure cancer. However, these medications are undergoing research for their potential as cancer treatments. Researchers found that some benzimidazoles, such as fenbendazole, inhibit the growth of tumors by binding beta-tubulin and disrupting microtubules. Moreover, they induce cell death through the p53-p21 and autophagy-ferroptosis pathways.
A randomized placebo-controlled first-in-human phase 1 clinical trial of the benzimidazole oxifendazole is currently under way in healthy volunteers. Oxifendazole is a fully active metabolite of fenbendazole and has broad antiparasitic and anti-tumor activity. A 80-year-old female patient with advanced non-small cell lung cancer received fenbendazole orally and developed severe liver injury 9 months later. She had acquired information about fenbendazole from social media and self-administered the drug based on these reports.fenbendazole for cancer
