Fenben is a broad-spectrum benzimidazole anthelmintic that is used to treat various parasites in animals including giardiasis, roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, the tapeworm genus Taenia, pinworms and aelurostrongylus. It is also sold as a treatment for some types of cancer in humans.
A 57-year-old female patient with advanced non-small cell lung cancer self-administered orally ingested fenbendazole for several months and reported tumor shrinkage. This report is the first to document the efficacy of fenbendazole as a cancer treatment in patients with advanced NSCLC. Physicians should question their NSCLC patients about whether they are taking dietary supplements and herbs to treat their disease.
Our aim was to investigate where lung cancer patients obtain fenbendazole information, what is the quality of the information, and how they perceive it. In-depth interviews were conducted with six participants who had been diagnosed with lung cancer three months to five years ago. All interviews were recorded and transcribed.
Most patients acquired information about fenbendazole from acquaintances, the Internet, or TV. A small number of patients, mainly K and U, directly looked up Joe Tippens’ YouTube videos, but most did not cross-check the original data.
Using wild-type and 5-fluorouracil-resistant SNU-C5 colorectal cancer cells, we found that fenbendazole significantly inhibits the growth of both cells by inducing autophagy via beclin-1. Furthermore, fenbendazole induces apoptosis and ferroptosis in 5-fluorouracil-resistant SNU-C5 cells through an ataxia telangiectasia-like pathway that does not require p53. In addition, we found that berberine works synergistically with fenbendazole to further limit cancer cell’s ability to take up glucose, thus starving the cells. fenben