Fenbendazole is an anti-parasitic agent, which has been found to be effective in treating many kinds of cancer. Its side effects are relatively mild and easy to tolerate. It also has the potential to be combined with other medications, enhancing their effectiveness. A patient named Joe Tippens was diagnosed with lung cancer and given a few months to live. He opted to use a mixture of fenbendazole with CBD oil, curcumin, and vitamin E to treat his cancer, which worked and he is now cancer-free. This sparked interest in the possibility of using this treatment for other patients, as well as the investigation of its mechanism of action.

In the present study, we investigated the anti-tumor effects and the underlying mechanisms of fenbendazole in colorectal cancer cells. The results showed that fenbendazole inhibited the proliferation of SNU-C5 and SNU-C5/5-FUR cancer cells in a time-dependent manner. It also induced G2/M arrest and increased p21 expression in the SNU-C5 cell line. Furthermore, fenbendazole also induced the activation of the necroptosis-related proteins RIP, pMLKL, and caspase-8 in SNU-C5 cells.

Furthermore, fenbendazole and its optimized analog 6 (F6) both inhibited the viability of HeLa cells and impaired their energy metabolism by increasing oxidative stress. The optimized analog 6 exhibited improved anti-tumor activity with less toxicity to normal human cells, suggesting that it could be a promising candidate for cancer therapy.fenbendazole for humans