Question

Dog deworming medicine fenbendazole is a cure for cancer.

Comments

In the article, Dr. Brian Wojciechowski explains the studies that have shown that fenbendazole has cancerous properties when introduced to mice; he also details that, that specific information is not enough to determine whether or not it is a safe medication for humans. There have been no human studies done, and there is no knowledge of whether or not there are any long-term side effects. Therefore using the word "cure" is a big misrepresentation of the conclusion of the article.

Answer 1

The claim that “fenbendazole is a cure for cancer” is misleading. The source included in this claim is a podcast from breastcancer.org, where oncologist and medical advisor Brian Wojciechowski states that fenbendazole has typically been used to treat parasites in dogs. Scientists discovered that the drug prevents microtubules, which is part of the structural support that both normal and cancer cells need to survive. A study at Johns Hopkins revealed that fenbendazole stopped tumor growth in mice, as it affected the fast-growing cancer cells more than the healthy cells.

However, there have been no widespread tests on humans with cancer, or on how fenbendazole interacts with other medications someone with cancer may be taking. Dr. Wojciechowski emphasizes that he would definitely not recommend this drug to his patients due to lack of information about side effects. While fenbendazole has interesting medical potential and has proven effective in mice, defining it as a “cure for cancer” is a harmful and false statement. 

The National Institute of Health supports this conclusion. The NIH article cited below confirms that fenbendazole does have "potential anticancer capabilities," but there must be extensive clinical trials before it can be safely and effectively prescribed to humans.

https://www.breastcancer.org/podcast/deworming-medicine

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9600184/

Comments

You researched this claim very well and were able to use other resources to deduct that the claim made was false. I agree with how you stated that calling fenbendazole a "cure" for cancer is misleading.

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The resources following this comment are very insightful and support your claim. The misinformation surrounding the fact-checking claim can be very harmful, and it is important to allow the right information to be pushed through. Your information and argument checks out.

Answer 2

While the article says that the medication has been found to help with cancer somewhat in mice, there have been no tests with humans. The word "cure" is very strong. It is promising for future research but not a confirmed "cure".

Comments

I agree with your fact-checking as the word "cure" is very misleading. Did you look for articles that either proved or disproved this claim? It would help back up your fact-checking answer with some outside evidence and credibility. I decided to look a little further and found two, one from McMaster University and the other from the National Library of Medicine. The McMaster article states that Sheila Singh, director of McMaster’s Centre for Discovery in Cancer Research, has debunked this claim as there is no solid data to back it up. In the piece from the National Library of Medicine, it suggests that there is no evidence that the deworming medicine could actually work in human cancer therapy.

https://brighterworld.mcmaster.ca/articles/deworming-medicine-fenbendazole-cancer-claims/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3580766/

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The word "cure" always makes me a little skeptical when looking at articles, so I could possibly understand why you thought this was misleading, however did you find any evidence or articles to support this?

Answer 3

In the article, Dr. Brian Wojciechowski explains the studies that have shown that fenbendazole has cancerous properties when introduced to mice; he also details that, that specific information is not enough to determine whether or not it is a safe medication for humans. There have been no human studies done, and there is no knowledge of whether or not there are any long-term side effects. Therefore using the word "cure" is a big misrepresentation of the conclusion of the article.

Comments

I agree with this fact check that there has been no studies on humans and that we do not know the long term effects of this medication on humans. It would be helpful to the articles you used to fact check this post such as the one by Dr. Brian Wojciechowski.

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This fact check is great. I agree with what you said about how the studies have only worked on mice so far. There no long term studies on humans so it would be nice if they showed that in the article