The drug fenbendazole, also known as albendazole and mebendazole, is often used to treat parasitic diseases and worms in humans. However, new reports of patients using it to treat their cancer are gaining popularity in the internet. These new publications only add to existing and growing scientific evidence that reveals the cancer fighting potential of drugs in the benzimidazole family.

These drugs, like DCA, can help reactivate the p53 gene inside cancer cells. P53 acts as a tumor suppressor gene that prevents tumors from growing and spreading. The p53 reactivation caused by these drugs can lead to cancer cell death, which causes tumors to shrink or stop forming.

A patient with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) reported that she self-administered fenbendazole, an anthelmintic drug in the benzimidazole class, after seeing information about it on social media. She self-administered the anthelmintic for a month, and experienced a significant improvement in her NSCLC tumors.

Other fenbendazole for humans studies have shown that the medication can stop cellular growth and increase apoptosis, or programmed cell death. The drug can also interfere with proteasomal degradation and inhibit microtubule function, thereby starving cancer cells. Additionally, it can halt glucose absorption in cancer cells by interfering with linear movement through the microtubules, which cuts off their ability to absorb insulin-fueled glucose.

There is no evidence that fenbendazole can cure cancer by itself, but it may work as an adjunctive therapy to other established treatments such as chemotherapy or radiation. It is possible that this treatment could prevent recurrent cancer by stopping tumors from regenerating, but it would not be able to “wake them back up” as the Facebook post suggests. fenbendazole for humans