For people and their pets, cancer is a devastating illness that has claimed many lives. While pharmaceutical medicine has come a long way in managing and reducing the symptoms of the disease, researchers and doctors are still searching for a cure. One such solution is the dog dewormer, fenbendazole, which has shown promising results in studies on laboratory animals. The medication is widely available over the counter as a dewormer for dogs and cats under the brand names Safe Guard, Pro Sense, and Panacur C.
A viral video posted to TikTok and Facebook claimed that the wormer was a miracle drug that could cure humans of cancer. It was based on the story of Joe Tippens, an Oklahoma man who had small-cell lung cancer that had spread to his organs and bones. He told KOCO 5 that he decided to try the dog dewormer after receiving a tip from a veterinary surgeon online. He says he followed the advice and within three months his cancer was gone.
While many scientists are skeptical of these claims, others haven’t dismissed the anti-parasitic’s potential. UPenn oncologist Yvonne J. Paterson, for example, recently developed a cancer vaccine that uses genetically modified listeria to target the mutated BRAF gene in osteosarcoma tumors.
The bacterium has been found to stimulate killer immune cells in some dogs with osteosarcoma and is currently being tested in larger clinical trials. The UPenn vaccine is the first of its kind to target the protein associated with bone cancers in people and dogs, and it could lead to new ways to treat other types of tumors. dog dewormer cancer