Fenbendazole for humans cancer has gained attention after an anecdotal story resurfaced on social media of a man with advanced lung cancer who became cancer-free after taking the dog dewormer and other supplements. This treatment is not supported by scientific evidence, however, and Health Canada lists the drug only for veterinary use in people. The man in the case had other conventional cancer treatments at the same time, which could have contributed to his remission.

The video that prompted the viral post shows a man with lung cancer claiming to have been cured by taking fenbendazole (Panacur C) and other supplements. The man says he had been given just three months to live after being diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. He credited the drug with clearing his body of the disease, saying he was free of tumors and other symptoms after several months of using the medicine.

This anecdote is unsupported by scientific evidence and is likely to mislead people, AFP has found. A number of peer-reviewed studies have examined the drug and others in the same class as potential anti-cancer treatments, but none has shown enough evidence to reliably confirm that fenbendazole can cure human cancers.

The drug belongs to a family of drugs known as anthelmintics, which are used to treat parasites in animals. Scientists have discovered that some members of this group can also have anti-cancer effects in laboratory experiments. For example, a study published in 2018 in Scientific Reports found that fenbendazole could block proliferation of human cancer cells grown in a lab dish and promote cell death. The same year, a press release from Johns Hopkins Medicine noted that mebendazole, another anthelmintic, and other members of the same family of drugs could slow down pancreatic cancer progression in mice. fenbendazole for humans cancer