The benzimidazole anthelmintic drug fenbendazole is used to treat parasitic infections in animals. Some studies have shown that fenbendazole can slow down cancer cell growth in cells and animals, but there isn’t enough evidence from randomized clinical trials showing that it cures cancer in people.
Despite the lack of scientific proof, an unlicensed veterinarian named Joe Tippens made claims on social media that his dog deworming medicine could cure cancer. The videos went viral and led to people taking fenbendazole without prescription, which is illegal in some countries.
The goal of this study was to investigate the perception of lung cancer patients toward fenbendazole cancer and its role in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). We conducted focus group interviews with 21 lung cancer patients at the hospital where they were receiving treatment. The interview was semi-structured and included three categories: 1) acquisition channel of general cancer information and the false information, 2) quality of obtained information, and 3) perception toward it. The results showed that most participants mainly acquired the false information about fenbendazole from the Internet community or portal sites and YouTube. Moreover, most of the participants were concerned about the quality and authenticity of the information from these sources. They were also worried that the information might cause harmful side effects and they were anxious about using CAM. In addition, the findings indicated that fenbendazole causes G2/M arrest and apoptosis in 5-FU-sensitive SNU-C5 and SNU-C5/5-FUR colorectal cancer cells by increasing p53 expression and partly through activation of caspase-3 and autophagy/ferroptosis. fenbendazole cancer