Research shows that Fenbendazole, commonly used as a canine deworming drug in veterinary practice, can block sugar uptake, cause apoptosis in cancer cells, reduce tumour size and even help overcome cancer drug resistance, making it another 'repurposed drug' that can be used to treat cancer.
Importantly, this review on Fenbendazole highlights different research studies on several cancers, the dose one might take, what other supplements might help and the frequency of usage; in fact everything you need to know about Fenbendazole as a human anti-cancer drug with minimal side-effects (Updated three times from an article by Chris Woollams, originally in 2016).
When you search Fenbendazole and cancer you will see articles shouting that there's no evidence that Fenbendazole can treat cancer. That is correct because of three main reasons -first, it is not approved for human use; secondly, there are no phase III Clinical Trials. Also the powers that be, for example the FDA, do not like repurposed drugs, because these drugs take revenue from their friends at Big Pharma.
There is a volume of research building on benzimidazoles. Read this article in this context.
The 'Accidental' discovery of anti-cancer Fenbendazole
Back in 2014, a team of researchers at top American Hospital Johns Hopkins was trying to grow tumours by injection in laboratory mice. Except with one group of mice, they failed. The reason they discovered, was that these mice had been de-wormed with an anti-parasitic drug. They read more about the drug (1), only to find that anti-cancer activity had previously been reported for Fenbendazole (writes Gilly Bertram).
Fenbendazole (FZ) or FenBen, comes from a class of drugs called benzimidazoles. Mebendazole is also a benzimidazole as are Oxfendazole (a metabolite of Fenbendazole), Albendazole, and Parbendazole. All are anthelmintics with research against cancer. You can read more about Mebendazole as an anti-cancer drug here. Furthermore, the benzimidazole 'core' is found in a wide variety of drugs such as antimicrobials, antivirals, anti-parasites, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidants, proton pump inhibitors, antihypertensives, anticoagulants, immunomodulators, hormone modulators and CNS stimulants.
Fenbendazole is commonly used in veterinary medicine for anti-worm and parasite treatments and anthelmintics are used effectively to kill worms such as roundworms, hookworms, whipworms and some tapeworms as well as parasites. Parasitic worms are known as helminths and these drugs are also known as anthelmintic drugs. Fenbendazole is branded under names like Panacur and Safe-Guard.
The anti-cancer action of Fenbendazole
Two things are worth saying up front.
Firstly, if you cannot find research on your cancer with Fenbendazole, it is worth checking our Mebendazole page as the two drugs both work in similar ways. Mebendazole has research with brain cancer, pancreatic cancer, Triple Negative Breast cancer, sarcoma and colon cancer for example.
Secondly, Fenbendazole research suggests that this drug, when used off label, has probably at least twelve different anti-cancer actions
In particular, it inhibits tumour growth by inducing apoptosis (cell death) of tumour cells. Researchers are also finding that Fenbendazole could be useful for overcoming drug resistance which is a common setback in conventional cancer therapies.
In a 2018 paper published in Nature (2), the authors report that Fenbendazole appears to act as a destabilising agent of tubulin in microtubules which are important structural proteins making up the cytoskeleton of cells and these proteins allow the microscopic organs inside our cells (called organelles) to move throughout the cell. These microtubules are present in worms, and also in cancer cells. The researchers conclude that there is evidence of cancer cell death by the modulation of multiple cellular pathways, which may lead to the effective elimination of cancer cells. In particularly Fenbendazole seems to work best in cancers that are p53 wild type as it has significant mitochondrial action.
Also in the 2018 Nature research, Fenbendazole showed an affinity for mammalian tubulin and exerted cytotoxicity to human cancer cells at micromolar concentrations. A further anti-cancer mechanism the researchers found with Fenbendazole was that after oral feeding it blocked the uptake of glucose in cancer cells, by affecting p53, GLUT transporters and hexokinase, depriving cancer cells of their primary fuel. This discovery would support the use of Fenbendazole as an complementary therapy to chemotherapy and radiotherapy as well as metabolic therapies and potentially a stand alone therapy. In the various studies below, Fenbendazole also triggers apoptosis through mitochondrial injury and the caspase 3-PARP pathway. In wild-type CRC, Fenbendazole activates p53-mediated apoptosis by increasing p53 expression. Additionally, it induces necrosis, autophagy, and ferroptosis. In 5-FU-resistant CRC, Fenbendazole triggers apoptosis without affecting p53 expression, likely enhancing p53-independent ferroptosis-augmented apoptosis. Fenbendazole also causes oxidative stress and activates the MEK3/6-p38MAPK pathway, inhibiting cancer cell proliferation and enhancing apoptosis.
Finally, Fenbendazole acts as a significant proteasome inhibitor (3)
The use of anthelminthic drugs with cancer and some research behind it
It's not just the 2018 Nature paper that has demonstrated the effective use of Fenbendazole and others for various types of cancer cells -
* Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (3),
* Lymphoma- In this study using mice (4), an even better result was obtained when using supplements B, D, K, E, and A. as well as the FenBen. In a new 2024 study with NHL, the addition of Fenbendazole to CHOP chemotherapy had a significant cancer reduction effect in patients (12).
* Prostate cancer - An early study showed Fenbendazole effective with metastatic prostate cancer; A further study showed prostate cancer cells were killed where Fenbendazole was used together with vitamin E succinate (5). And a 2024 study showed Mebendazole could be a 'game changer' when used with Docetaxel by a team at Glasgow University (6).
* Glioblastoma, or GBM atually with Mebendazole, MBZ (7).
* Bladder cancer, kidney cancer - In 2021 a group at Stanford University Medical Center, Department of Medicine, published a Case Series (Clin. Oncol. Case Rep 2021) all on Stage 4 cancers using repurposed drug Fenbendazole (8).
* Colorectal cancer - In the early 90s, another antihelminthic drug called Levamizole was shown as a effective complementary treatment for colon cancer (CRC) and was shown to restore a depressed immune system (9). In 2022, Fenbendazole was shown to be effective in 5-FU resistant colorectal cancer (10). And we have recorded 2023 in vivo research on the Mebendazole page where the anti-helmintic strongly and selectively inhibited colorectal cancer proliferation, reduced tumour size and induced apoptosis.
* Triple Negative Breast Cancer - on the Mebendazole page we reported an in vivo study with mice showing that two benzimidazoles along with butyrate and proprionate (two short chain fatty acids made by gut bacteria), extended survival times with superior cytoxic effects.
Fenbendazole anti-cancer protocol - amounts and support compounds
Perhaps the most famous anecdotal evidence comes from cancer patient, Joe Tippens, an avid researcher who was given three months to live, who decided to try Panacur with the agreement of his consultant . There's a review in Anti-cancer research 2024 (11). Joe took a combination of nutrients to support fenbendazole, while deciding not to change his diet with his NSCLC. It worked!
Joe Tippens' original protocol for Fenbendazole with lung cancer consits of:
- 1 gram granules of canine drug ‘Panacur C’, these contain 222mg of Fenbendazole; taken 3 days on, 4 days off
- Vitamin E Succinate (800IU daily)
- Bioavailable Curcumin (600mg daily)
- CBD oil (25mg per day)
From our anti-cancer experience, we would suggest patients use ''total' complete vitamin E with all 4 tocopherols and all 4 tocotrienols, instead of the succinate version.
We suggest patients add both Berberine (3 x 500 mg) and Quercetin (2 x 500 mg) to enhance the anti-cancer, sugar reducing and antiinflammatory effects. And take magnesium.
As you will see below, the off label drug, Ivermectin (an insecticide) is gaining a lot of attention with Fenbendazole against cancer.
In the protocol from 5 doctors at the Stanford School of Medicine (8), all patients had chemo for their cancers; The additional protocol was typically 1000 mg Fenbendazole 3 days per week; vitamin E daily 800 mg; Curcumin, 600 mg; CBD oil. All patients became NED (No evidence of disease).
Febendazole toxicity and safety in humans
Although the original clinical approval for Fenbendazole was for intestinal parasites and not for cancer, and it is approved for animal use, the drug has already gone through human clinical trials and so all of the clinical trial work related to toxicity has already been done and Febendazole has been deemed safe for human consumption for many years. However at high doses it may cause liver toxicity so you should monitor your liver enzymes.
The label for the product approval talks of animals not humans. With animals, it is known that there is a likely interaction with salicylanilides like Niclosamide and Dibromsalan, so we suggest you avoid mixing it with either.
***** The 3-in-1 anti-cancer Protocol - Ivermectin, Mebendazole and Fenbendazole
Chris Woollams writes, "I am increasingly asked about combining Ivermectin with both anthelmintic drugs Fenbendazole and Mebendazole. This question is quite popular in younger people with Turbo cancer, and especially in older patients with recurrent Prostate cancer, Colorectal cancer and Lung cancer where the existing drugs offer little hope.
I have written a Blog specifically on this subject. You can read it HERE. I call it the '3-in-one protocol' using Fenbendazole, Mebendazole and Ivermectin. I provide details links and doses and there is even recent research to support this protocol which deals with the mitochondrial stem cell connection".
Go to: Repurposed drugs as cancer treatments
Go to: Personal Prescriptions with Chris Woollams
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References
- Surprise Finding Yields a Possible Tumor-Fighting Drug; Johns Hopkins Medicine
- Fenbendazole acts as a moderate microtubule destabilizing agent and causes cancer cell death by modulating multiple cellular pathways; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-30158-6
- Impairment of the Ubiquitin-Proteasome Pathway by Methyl N-(6-Phenylsulfanyl-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)carbamate Leads to a Potent Cytotoxic Effect in Tumor Cells ; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3436308/
- Unexpected Antitumorigenic Effect of Fenbendazole when Combined with Supplementary Vitamins; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2687140/
- Effects of fenbendazole and vitamin E succinate on the growth and survival of prostate cancer cells' - December 2011Journal of Cancer Research and Experimental Oncology 3(9)
- Repurposing screen identifies mebendazole as a clinical candidate to synergise with docetaxel for prostate cancer treatment; Linda K Rushworth et al; 2024, University of Glasgow; http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/207115/
- Antiparasitic mebendazole shows survival benefit in 2 preclinical models of glioblastoma multiforme; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21764822
- The Medical Adviser - FENBENDAZOLE in Stage 4 Cancers - the 2021 Stanford University Case Series
- Levamisole in the adjuvant treatment of colon cancer;https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2009737
- Anti-cancer effects of fenbendazole on 5-fluorouracil-resistant colorectal cancer cells; Deokbae Park, Jung-Hee Lee, Sang-Pil Yoon, Korean J Physiol Pharmacol. 2022 Sep 1;26(5):377–387.
- Oral Fenbendazole for Cancer Therapy in Humans and Animals; JOLIE NGUYEN, THAI Q. NGUYEN, BO HAN and BA X. Anticancer Research September 2024, 44 (9) 3725-3735;
- Fenbendazole Exhibits Differential Anticancer Effects In Vitro and In Vivo in Models of Mouse Lymphoma; Haebeen Jung, Si-Yeon Kim, Hong Gu-Joo; Current Issue Mol Biol 2023 45 (11), 8925
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