A common deworming drug used in dogs and cats may help to cure cancer in humans, but doctors urge caution over the unproven method.
Fenbendazole, known by its brand names Panacur and Safe-Guard, is an antiparasitic used in animals with parasites such as roundworms, hookworms, tapeworms and giardia.
But in recent studies that investigated its efficacy in treating cancer in humans, researchers said it could be a ‘potentially safe and effective‘ alternative treatment.
In a video last month, Dr John Campbell — a former nurse educator in the UK — reviewed case studies from 2021 that found three patients with advanced cancer saw their tumors shrink after taking fenbendazole.
He said: ‘I think the drug regulators need to start looking at this as a matter of some urgency because people are dying from cancer now.
‘If something is safe and effective, surely it can be accredited for human use by our national authorizing agencies pretty quickly — if they wanted to.’
A handful of scientific papers have been published in recent years suggesting fenbendazole has anti-cancer properties — including a 2020 review from scientists in Tennessee, which found the drug slowed lung cancer growth in some mice with the disease.
Another study from this year that reviewed six human cases where tumors shrank after taking the drug concluded fenbendazole ‘stands out’ as a possible new cancer therapy.