Ivermectin and Fenbendazole in Cancer Care Demands Our Attention

Written by PSI Editor on July 17, 2026. Posted in Current News

The numbers are stark. Tens of millions of people worldwide live with cancer, a disease that devastates families and drains hope. For those with stage IV diagnoses, the conversation often shifts from cure to management.

In this landscape of profound need, a new narrative is sweeping the globe, igniting a firestorm of hope on social media and sparking urgent questions among patients and their families. The claim is simple yet seismic: two common, inexpensive antiparasitic drugs—ivermectin and fenbendazole—might hold the key to treating cancer, and even inducing complete remission in the most advanced cases.

Epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher has brought these claims into sharp focus, stating that complete remissions of stage IV cancers are already documented in peer-reviewed literature . He points to a case report published in Case Reports in Oncology that describes three stage IV patients who achieved complete remission .

The cases described are nothing short of astonishing:

• An 83-year-old woman with metastatic breast cancer whose PET scan showed no evidence of disease, with remission lasting nearly three years.

• A 75-year-old man with metastatic prostate cancer whose PSA dropped to undetectable levels.

• A 63-year-old man with advanced melanoma whose tumor DNA dropped from 123 to zero in less than two months .

These are not just anecdotes. Hulscher and other dissenting voices argue that hundreds of studies show these drugs activate more than 12 anticancer mechanisms, including destabilizing microtubules, blocking the mTOR pathway, cutting off the glucose supply to tumors, and eliminating cancer stem cells . A recent systematic review analyzing 26 studies reportedly observed clinical improvements in leukemias and lymphomas without serious adverse effects .

For patients who have run out of options—who face the soaring costs and devastating side effects of conventional therapies—this is a lifeline.

And the medical establishment? It is accused of ignoring it. While billions are invested in high-cost therapies, these are drugs that cost pennies and have been used safely for decades. The question now thundering across the internet is undeniable: Is this the greatest medical suppression in history, or the most important discovery of the 21st century?

Dissenting scientists are demanding urgent, controlled clinical trials. But for many terminal patients, time has simply run out.

This information needs to be seen. Your friends or family fighting cancer need to read this today.

Why is it unlikely that any formal clinical trial by big pharma will explore this potential treatment?

A formal clinical trial exploring a repurposed, off-patent drug like ivermectin or fenbendazole for a new use like cancer faces a fundamental economic barrier that is well-documented in pharmaceutical literature. The core of the problem isn’t scientific skepticism alone but a “financial orphan” dilemma.

The Lack of Financial Incentive

For a pharmaceutical company, the business model for a new drug relies on a temporary monopoly provided by a patent, allowing them to set high prices to recoup massive research and development costs (estimated at over US$1 billion and 10-15 years) .

• No Monopoly, No Profit: Ivermectin and fenbendazole are off-patent generic drugs. A company cannot patent the active ingredient itself. While a new use (like for cancer) can be patented, this is difficult and costly to enforce . Since anyone could manufacture and sell the drug for cancer once it’s proven effective, a company investing billions in a trial cannot secure a market monopoly to get a return on that investment.

• Trial Costs vs. Low Return: Running a large, late-stage clinical trial can cost tens of millions of dollars. Because the drug would be cheap and have many competitors, the potential profit margin is too slim to justify the investment. Instead, companies prefer to invest in “me-too” drugs—new, patentable molecules that are chemically similar to existing ones .

 A Contrast with the Existing Business Model

The pharmaceutical industry’s current model provides a powerful contrast to the repurposing of cheap generics. Companies are incentivized to develop new, expensive, and patent-protected drugs for a few key reasons:

• High Returns on Branded Drugs: New patented drugs generate enormous revenue. For example, immunotherapies like pembrolizumab and nivolumab generate approximately US$30 billion in annual sales .

• Institutional Revenue: Even when a drug loses its patent, large companies have a strategy to continue profiting. They can sell “branded generics” in many global markets (outside the US and Western Europe) for 20-40% more than unbranded generics, using their established brand trust and physician relationships . However, this still requires the drug to be an established, known product, not a new one requiring expensive trials.

The profit motive acts as a major deterrent for “Big Pharma,” and while innovative funding mechanisms are being developed by public and non-profit entities to potentially overcome this barrier, there is no substitute for doing your own research.  Check out the references below.

References

Cited in the Article

1. Makis, W., Baghli, I., & Martinez, P. (2025). Fenbendazole as an Anticancer Agent? A Case Series of Self-Administration in Three Patients. Case Reports in Oncology, 18(1), 856–863. https://doi.org/10.1159/000546362 

   Describes the three stage IV cancer cases cited by Nicolas Hulscher: an 83-year-old woman with metastatic breast cancer, a 75-year-old man with metastatic prostate cancer, and a 63-year-old man with BRAFV600+ melanoma—all of whom achieved complete remission documented by imaging and tumor markers. 

2. Dogra, N., Kumar, A., & Mukhopadhyay, T. (2018). Fenbendazole acts as a moderate microtubule destabilizing agent and causes cancer cell death by modulating multiple cellular pathways. Scientific Reports, 8, Article 11926. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-30331-2 

   Preclinical study demonstrating fenbendazole’s mechanism as a microtubule destabilizing agent, disrupting cancer cell division and inducing apoptosis. 

3. Mrkvová, M., Müller, P., Knejzlík, Z., & Vojtěšek, B. (2019). Benzimidazoles promote p53 stabilization and transcriptional activity in cancer cells overexpressing Mdm2 and MdmX. Molecules, 24(11), 2152. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24112152 

   Demonstrates how benzimidazole drugs (including fenbendazole) promote p53 stabilization and transcriptional activity, contributing to anticancer effects. 

4. Systematic review of ivermectin in cancer patients. Identified 26 studies with 36 real patients; no serious adverse effects reported; clinical improvements observed in leukemias and lymphomas, many continuing conventional chemotherapy. 

5. Drug repurposing for cancer therapy. Springer table demonstrating ivermectin activity against colon, prostate, breast, and gastric cancer cells via AKT-mTOR, Wnt/β-catenin, and EGFR pathway inhibition. European Journal of Medical Research. 

Suggested Further Reading

Mechanistic Studies

6. Al-Zoubi, R. M., Farhan, A., Hanbali, B., et al. (2026). Antiparasitic agents in oncology: Innovative mechanisms, emerging evidence and clinical potential in cancer treatment. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 316, 118987. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmech.2026.118987 

   Comprehensive review of antiparasitic drug repurposing for cancer, covering ivermectin, mebendazole, niclosamide, and others, with detailed mechanistic pathways including Wnt/β-catenin, PI3K/Akt/mTOR, and Hedgehog signaling. 

7. Nguyen, J. (2024). Oral Fenbendazole for Cancer Therapy in Humans and Animals. Anticancer Research, 44, 3725-3735. 

   Reviews fenbendazole’s anticancer mechanisms: microtubule disruption, apoptosis induction, G2/M cell cycle arrest, angiogenesis inhibition, and interference with glucose and glutamine metabolic pathways. 

8. Duo, Q. (2016). Ivermectin induces cytostatic Autophagy by blocking the PAK1/AKT axis in breast cancer. Cancer Research, 76(15), 4457-4469. 

   Shows ivermectin’s mechanism in breast cancer through PAK1/AKT/mTOR pathway inhibition and autophagy induction. 

9. Dragnov et al. (2021). Ivermectin induces immunogenic cell death, turning cold tumors to hot, enhancing immunotherapy effectiveness in triple-negative breast cancer. NPJ Breast Cancer. 

Clinical and Regulatory Perspectives

10. ASCO Clinical Notice (2026). Recommending Against Ivermectin and Fenbendazole for Cancer Treatment, Outside of Clinical Trials. ASCO Connection. 

    Professional oncology society position noting that preclinical findings do not translate to human efficacy; achieving active concentrations would require doses exceeding safety limits; warns of toxicity, drug interactions, and opportunity costs. 

11. Science Feedback (2024). Lack of evidence for cancer treatment protocol that recommends antiparasitic drugs ivermectin and mebendazole. 

    Fact-check analysis explaining why the protocol co-authored by William Makis relies on insufficient evidence: in vitro and animal studies, anecdotal case reports, and human studies not designed to assess anticancer effectiveness. 

12. Ongoing Clinical Trials. ICONIC trial: Phase II randomized trial investigating ivermectin combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors in solid tumors (estimated completion 2027). ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT07487805. 

Ion Channel Hypothesis

13. Chloride channel mechanisms in cancer. Emerging research suggests ivermectin may exert anticancer effects through GluCl-like chloride channels (e.g., CLIC6) in cancer cells, disrupting ionic homeostasis, inducing mitochondrial dysfunction, and triggering apoptosis via PI3K/AKT and Wnt/β-catenin pathway inhibition.