Fenben cancer treatment has sprung up as the topic of discussion on social media platforms such as TikTok and Facebook after Joe Tippens, a cancer patient, shared his story about how he used fenben to cure his rare type of small-cell lung cancer in 2019. The information on the Internet also includes testimonials from other patients who say that they have been cured by this drug.

However, it has been unclear whether this information about fenben is reliable. The authors conducted a survey to understand how people acquire and perceive information on fenben cancer treatment. The questionnaire included questions on the sources of information that people get about this drug and how they perceive its efficacy. The respondents were divided into three groups according to their acquisition channels: acquaintances or relatives, TV news, and the Internet.

The results showed that fenbendazole induces cell cycle arrest in colorectal cancer cells and patient-derived colon cancer organoids through multiple mechanisms. It inhibits glycolysis by downregulation of GLUT-4 transporters and reduces hexokinase II expression, which in turn increases the activation of p53-dependent apoptosis. It also triggers ferroptosis through the inactivation of cysteine uptake by SLC7A11 and GPX4-dependent lipid peroxidation, and decreases autophagy. Its effect is augmented by dATP and Caspase-8.

Oral administration of fenbendazole also led to a dramatic reduction in tumor size and weight in athymic nude mice with A549 xenografts, as well as a decrease in tumor vascularity reflected by a decrease in hemoglobin content measured spectrophotometrically. In addition, it activates p53 without affecting mutant p53 expression in 5-fluorouracil-resistant SNU-C5 cells and enhances apoptosis via the p53/p21-dependent pathway in these cells. fenben cancer treatment