Fenbendazole for Pancreatic Cancer
The drug fenbendazole has been around since the 1970s and is widely used to treat worm infestations. However, multiple investigations and publications in peer-reviewed journals have shown that it is also effective against a variety of human tumors.
One such claim was made by Joe Tippens, a terminal lung cancer patient who claimed that fenbendazole and other supplements helped him become cancer-free. The claims led to the Joe Tippens Cancer Protocol, a treatment plan that includes fenbendazole along with a high dose of curcumin and vitamin E.
In the new study, researchers at Johns Hopkins University and other institutions showed that fenbendazole was able to kill pancreatic cancer cells in genetically engineered mice, preventing their initiation, progression and spread. It appears that the drug works by stopping the formation of tubulin, a protein that is both a micro-skeleton inside cells and a highway for transport. This halts the cancer cells' structure and starves them from within, Riggins explains.
The team then looked at how parbendazole affected DNA distribution and size in the cells of both AsPC-1 and Capan-2, two different types of pancreatic cancer cell lines. They found that both lower and higher concentrations of parbendazole drastically reduced the growth rate of these cells as well as their clonogenicity.
The results support the development of a national clinical trial to evaluate fenbendazole in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, which is an aggressive form of cancer with a five-year survival rate of less than 11 percent and few treatment options. The study was funded by the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research and the National Cancer Institute’s Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network, which is a network of hospitals and academic medical centers across the United States that is dedicated to early-phase cancer trials. fenbendazole for pancreatic cancer