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Mebendazole is a human worm medicine that has been through two very small cancer trials: a dose-finding study in brain tumours found a tolerable dose, and a study in advanced bowel and stomach cancers saw every patient's cancer keep growing.
Reverse swing-M, a phase 1 study of 11 patients with recurrent glioblastoma, added mebendazole to re-irradiation with temozolomide, to lomustine or to temozolomide alone, and set a recommended phase 2 dose of 1600 mg three times a day with temozolomide and 800 mg three times a day with lomustine, with anaemia in 82 percent and nausea in 64 percent the most common adverse events (Reverse swing-M phase 1 2020). A phase 2a study in treatment-refractory gastrointestinal cancer treated 10 of 11 enrolled patients with individually dosed mebendazole up to 4 g a day, saw no severe adverse effects, and stopped every patient for progressive disease by the eight-week scan, four of them meeting suggested criteria for hyperprogression (Mebendazole phase 2a 2021). A telemedicine cohort of 197 patients prescribed compounded ivermectin with mebendazole reported self-assessed benefit, and the journal has placed an expression of concern on the paper while it audits the data (Anticancer Research expression of concern 2026). Combined ivermectin and benzimidazole prescribing to US cancer patients rose 2.6-fold after a January 2025 podcast (Rockwell JAMA Network Open 2026).
Binds tubulin and blocks microtubule assembly in worms. In glioma and other cancer cell lines the same effect stops cell division; that is laboratory evidence, and the two human studies below are the clinical record.
1.Mebendazole binds its target with one end and an E3 ubiquitin ligase with the other.
Background: ADC sequencing, Antigen escape (antigen loss, lineage switch), BCG-unresponsive, Castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), Circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA). Also on OnCo: Resistance: how tumours escape each drug class · Lines of therapy.
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A case series selected by its authors from a decade of practice cannot show that any drug worked, and the selection method has no scientific basis.
Measures the reach of the claim rather than the drug: tens of thousands of prescriptions written on the strength of a podcast, with no trial behind them.
This is the paper most often quoted online as proof. Patients reporting how they feel to the company that sold them the treatment, with 38 percent not answering, cannot show whether a cancer shrank, and the journal is now checking whether the underlying records exist.
The only completed efficacy study of an internet-famous dewormer in cancer patients found no benefit in anyone. It is the clearest human result in this whole story.
This is what legitimate repurposing looks like: a registered dose-finding trial that reports its toxicities. It says nothing yet about whether mebendazole helps glioblastoma.
Query for this drug: (TITLE:"Mebendazole" OR ABSTRACT:"Mebendazole" OR TITLE:"Vermox" OR ABSTRACT:"Vermox" OR TITLE:"MBZ" OR ABSTRACT:"MBZ") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about Mebendazole, not a curated reading list.
Shares Fenbendazole, ivermectin and other internet 'repurposed cures', Systematic drug repurposing, Ivermectin, No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs.
Shares Off-label, Fenbendazole, ivermectin and other internet 'repurposed cures', Preclinical, Ivermectin.
Shares Fenbendazole, ivermectin and other internet 'repurposed cures', Systematic drug repurposing, Preclinical, Ivermectin.
Shares Fenbendazole (veterinary anthelmintic), Off-label, Ivermectin, Misinformation and unproven therapies.
Shares Off-label, Systematic drug repurposing, Ivermectin, No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs.
Shares Fenbendazole (veterinary anthelmintic), Fenbendazole, ivermectin and other internet 'repurposed cures', Ivermectin.
Shares Fenbendazole (veterinary anthelmintic), Fenbendazole, ivermectin and other internet 'repurposed cures', Misinformation and unproven therapies.
Shares Recommended phase 2 dose (RP2D), Systematic drug repurposing, Ivermectin, No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs.