Could a Medicine Originally Used as Dog Dewormer Hold Potential as an Alternative Cancer Treatment?
Fenbendazole (brand names Panacur C ®, Safe-Guard ®) is a veterinary medication approved for animals 1983. Worldwide, veterinarians commonly use fenbendazole, FBZ, to treat a variety of parasites in animals, such as tapeworms, hookworms, roundworms, lungworms, and whipworms. Fenbendazole has been known to have a high safety margin for animal use as it is tolerated well, has low side effects, and has a low degree of toxicity.
In recent years, the field of alternative cancer care has started looking towards Fenbendazole as a “repurposed medication”.
What Are Repurposed Medications?
We don’t often think about how long it takes for a drug to get from the laboratory to your neighborhood pharmacy but the reality of the situation is that between the testing, and clinical trials and waiting for FDA approvals, it can take years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The idea behind repurposed medications is simple. Repurposing is the practice of taking compounds that have been approved for one illness and using them to treat something else.
This method is steadily gaining traction as a smarter, cheaper, and safer way to treat infection or diseases, including cancer.
Repurposed Medication for Cancer Care
For cancer patients and their loved ones, treatment regimens can be a double-edged sword. As the drugs do their job to fight cancer, they are often accompanied by debilitating side effects. Sometimes, for no clear reason, medicines that were effective all of a sudden stop working. Cancer patients are often told to hold tight; that a new, less harmful treatment option might be just around the corner.
In oncology, repurposing is not a new idea. In fact, the first chemotherapy drugs originally had an entirely different purpose: they were repurposed from chemical weapons. When treating the victims of “mustard gas”, doctors realized the same toxins that caused blistering might have tumor-reducing power and began to convert the toxic compound into a therapeutic one.
Many of the most successful cases of drug repurposing have been equally as serendipitous – discovered more by chance than intent. With so many unrelated diseases sharing common molecular characteristics, it stands to reason that there would be huge areas of overlap when it comes to treatment.
Fenbendazole: From Dog Dewormer to Cancer Treatment?
Fenbendazole, like the other benzimidazoles, is a microtubule inhibitor. Microtubules are like ropes that are used to move things around inside the cell. When microtubules are prevented from doing their job, cells are not able to divide and reproduce. This results in cell death, especially in cancer cells.
Fenbendazole can work alongside traditional cancer therapies to target cancer cells. For example, one study found that FBZ could treat cancer by inhibiting the cancer cell’s glucose intake and acting as an interfering agent that blocks multiple cellular pathways in cancer cells.
The positive results of research into Fenbendazole as an anticancer agent mean the FDA could eventually approve the drug for treating human ailments, including cancer. This could save a considerable amount of time and money in developing new cancer-fighting drugs, resulting in drugs that are more affordable and accessible.
What Does the Research Tell Us
Fenbendazole has been studied for its potential to interfere with the glucose intake of cancer cells. Glucose is essential for cancer growth and proliferation.
This interference leads to a decrease in cancer cells both in laboratory settings and in animal experiments. It starves the cancer cells of the glucose they need to grow and divide.
Fenbendazole treatment is thought to have resulted in regression in a cancer patient with large B-cell lymphoma that had metastasized.
It was also found for other metastatic malignancies such as bladder cancer, renal cell carcinoma, and more.
The most recent studies have also shown Fenbendazole can potentially be used to treat pancreatic, ovarian and colorectal cancer.
Dosing Fenbendazole for Cancer
There are limited studies on the safety of Fenbendazole for humans and it is important to remember that the FDA has not approved Fenbendazole for use in humans. However, Fenbendazole is safe and well tolerated by most species. and the European Medicines Agency reported that single oral doses of up to 2,000 mg, or 500 mg for ten consecutive days, were well tolerated in humans
The optimal dose of any medication and/or supplement is related to the individual characteristics of a patient’s overall health, current disease status, treatment history, and current treatment regimen.
For optimal absorption, benzimidazole medications like Fenbendazole are generally recommended to be taken with a snack or meal that contains healthy fats.
Discuss Fenbendazole with an Integrative Oncology Nurse
If you’re considering taking FBZ or for cancer treatment, it’s important to discuss your plans with a knowledgeable healthcare professional. These medications are not necessarily right for everyone, and your healthcare team must be aware of any new treatments you decide to try.
You can speak with an integrative oncology nurse about your current cancer treatment plan to learn more about FBZ for cancer. In addition, they can give you the latest information available about which product to use from this family of drugs and determine if taking one of them might be right for you.
Click here to get your individualized protocol, but an integrative oncology nurse>>
