Fenbendazole is a drug commonly used to kill parasites and worms in animals. It is also used to treat certain cancers in humans, such as pancreatic cancer. It is part of a protocol called the Joe Tippens Cancer Protocol, which also includes ivermectin and gemcitabine. While some studies show that fenbendazole slows down cancer growth in cell cultures and mice, there isn’t enough evidence from randomized clinical trials to prove that it works in people.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal chemoresistant malignancies and there is a need for more effective therapies. Repurposing anthelmintics and other drugs for antitumor activity may broaden the range of effective agents. We investigated the effects of four FDA-approved benzimidazoles (fenbendazole, mebendazole and oxibendazole) on AsPC-1 and Capan-2 pancreatic cancer cell lines. Among these compounds, parbendazole exhibited the most potent effects on inhibiting PC cell viability. It did so through a combination of DNA damage, disruption of microtubules and interference with glucose metabolism.
In addition, parbendazole induced DNA breaks in the AsPC-1 and Capan-2 cells, and caused mitotic catastrophe, leading to apoptosis in both cells. It also altered the distribution of DNA fragments and the size of the cells, indicating that it affects their ploidy.
The lipophilicity of the four compounds was similar, with CLogP values of fenbendazole at 4.182, mebendazole at 3.072 and oxibendazole at 3.795. We conclude that fenbendazole may have a unique antitumor activity against pancreatic cancer, which could be mediated through the interaction with mitochondria. fenbendazole for pancreatic cancer