Cancer Advisor

Comparative evidence review • Experimental oncology • Biomarker hypothesis generation Abstract Background: Antiparasitic drugs have attracted interest as potential repurposed anticancer compounds because several demonstrate cytotoxic, anti-proliferative, metabolic, anti-angiogenic or signaling effects in experimental cancer models. Fenbendazole and mebendazole are benzimidazole anthelmintics with overlapping microtubule-related pharmacology, whereas ivermectin is a macrocyclic lactone with a substantially different molecular profile. A simple “antiparasitic drugs kill cancer cells” framework, however, obscures potentially important genotype and phenotype dependencies. Objective: To construct a comparative cancer biomarker map for fenbendazole (FBZ), mebendazole (MBZ), and ivermectin (IVM), focusing on TP53, MDM2, MDM4/MDMX, KRAS, EGFR, MYC, BRAF, RB1, CDKN2A, GLUT1, HK2, PAK1, YAP1, Wnt/β-catenin, PI3K/Akt/mTOR and related cellular phenotypes. Methods: Experimental, tr...

Medically Reviewed | Last updated on May 30, 2026. Cancer patients are increasingly inquiring about the use of the anthelmintic drugs Fenbendazole (FenBen) and Ivermectin (IVM) as potential treatments for cancer. Notably, these patients typically fall into two distinct groups, neither of which represents the usual stage 1 or 2 cancer cases where conventional therapies often show promise. The first group consists of older men whose lung or prostate cancer has recurred. Having undergone conventional treatments previously without success, they express skepticism about its effectiveness this time around. The second, larger group comprises younger patients under 40 dealing with aggressive breast cancer, colorectal cancer, or lymphoma—forms of early-onset cancers that appear to lack the typical mutations observed in traditional cases. This article aims to delve into the differences between Fe...