Does Fenbendazole Cure Cancer?

Fenbendazole is an antiparasitic drug that is used to treat parasitic infections in humans. Some studies using cancer cells in petri dishes and mice suggest that fenbendazole could slow down or kill cancer cells, but there isn’t enough evidence from randomized clinical trials to show that it can cure cancer in people.

The Joe Tippens Cancer Protocol is an anecdotal treatment plan based on the story of a cancer patient who said that taking fenbendazole cured his cancer. It’s not clear whether he actually experienced any tumor shrinkage, but the claim has gone viral on social media and has been promoted by celebrities including Russell Brand. The FDA tells Full Fact that there is no evidence fenbendazole cures cancer, and it hasn’t been proven effective in people through clinical trials.

In the lab, fenbendazole has been shown to act as an inhibitor of tubulin polymerization, which is one way it may kill cancer cells. It also has properties similar to cytotoxic anticancer agents that target microtubules.

But a few experiments in which researchers tested the effect of three daily fenbendazole injections on the growth of EMT6 human colon cancer tumors, either alone or combined with 10 Gy of radiation, didn’t change the survival curves (the time it takes for the tumors to grow four-fold) compared to controls. Nor did they affect the ability of irradiated tumors to survive, or the number of spontaneous lung metastases seen at necropsy at the end of the experiment. fenbendazole cures cancer