The Testing Evidence for Using Fenbendazole for Treating Gastric Cancer

Executive Summary

• This article covers the evidence I could find for Fenbendazole as a treatment for Gastric Cancer.

Article Summary

Studies demonstrate that Fenbendazole is effective against cancer, we then cover how Fenbendazole works against cancer by explaining the mechanisms of action, and then the impacts of Fenbendazole on cancer.

Introduction

This article provides an overview covering the evidence for Fenbendazole and related drugs versus Gastric Cancer.

Many articles on this website cover the evidence for the benefits of Fenbendazole for cancer. But the question of which specific cancers Fenbendazole has been proven effective is a constant source of questions.

The most common Benzimidazoles are Fenbendazole, Mebendazole and Albendazole. In our analysis, we include research for all three drugs together in articles as they are very similar to one another and it improves the ability to tie together different studies. You may see the following terms/acronyms used.

• FZ or FBZ means Fenbendazole
• MBZ means Mebendazole
• AZ means Albendazole

Cancer Type #2: Gastric Cancer

The following quote is from the article Mebendazole targets essential proteins in glucose metabolism leading gastric cancer cells to death.

Mebendazole (MBZ), an antihelminthic approved by FDA, has shown antitumoral activity against cancer cell lines.

Results evidenced that the antitumoral and cytotoxic mechanism of MBZ in GC cells is related to the modulation of the mRNA expression of glycolic targets SLC2A1, HK1, GAPDH, and LDHA.

Despite the high expenditure of money and new technologies, many types of cancer still lack efficient treatment options and are still associated with unfavorable outcomes across different countries (World Health Organization, 2021). Gastric cancer (GC) is one of these tumors associated with poor prognosis where early disease stage rarely causes symptoms.

MBZ has driven AGP01 cancer cells to death by intracellular apoptosis-related mechanisms.

The following quote is from the article Mebendazole prevents distant organ metastases in part by decreasing ITGβ4 expression and cancer stemness.

In addition, MBZ has been shown to reduce the migration and invasion of thyroid and gastric cancer cells [16, 28] and more recently in MDA-MB-231 cells [29]. Therefore, we used two independent assays to determine whether MBZ could also inhibit the migration of TNBC cells. First, we performed a wound-healing assay to assess the ability of MBZ to inhibit cell migration in vitro. SUM159 and MDA-MB-231 cells were grown to confluence, and a single scratch (or wound) was generated (0 h). The cells were treated with MBZ at a concentration of 0.25 μM, 0.35 μM, 0.5 μM, or with DMSO as vehicle control.

The wounds were imaged at time 0 h, 12 h, and 24 h to calculate the average area of the wound covered with cancer cells. Compared to the vehicle control, MBZ treatment significantly decreased the average healing speed of the wound starting 12 h post-treatment with a 0.35 μM MBZ concentration in MDA-MB-231 cells (Fig. 3A, B). In a second migration assay, MBZ reduced the ability of SUM159 and MDA-MB-231 cells to migrate through Transwell pores following 48 h of pre-treatment with 0.5 μM and 1 μM of MBZ as compared to DMSO (Fig. 3C, D).

Given the correlation between migratory ability and metastasis [36], our results suggest that even if a cell can survive MBZ treatment, it has a reduced capacity to migrate, and likely a decreased ability to metastasize.

Adding up the Studies of Fenbendazole Versus Cancer

There are many studies of Fenbendazole, Mebendazole, Albendazole, and other Benzimidazole derivatives versus cancer.

Due to the success of these studies and the information published in the study publications, the specific mechanisms by which these Benzimidazole-based Anthelmintics work against cancer are at this point well understood. There has not been a study published for every cancer type using one of the Benzimidazole derivatives. There are a very large number of different cancer types and limited funding for this type of research.

How Many Major Cancer Types Are There Studies For?

When I completed my analysis, I found 18 different types of cancer types which demonstrated effectiveness versus cancer. In many cases, these different cancer types had multiple cancer studies testing the different Benzimidazole derivatives.

Cancer centers do not apply the large body of published studies on the effectiveness of Benzimidazole derivatives to include as part of their treatment offerings. This is true even though Fenbendazole has been demonstrated to improve chemotherapy outcomes.

To understand the mechanisms by which Benzimidazole derivatives work against cancer, see the following few examples. To see all of the known mechanisms that I have compiled from all of the studies see the article on the mechanisms listed below.

The Multiple Mechanisms by Which Fenbendazole Works Against Cancer

There are many ways in which Fenbendazole works against cancer including.

• Reducing metastasis
• Increase autophagy
• Increase cancer cell death or apoptosis
• and much more

This topic is covered in the article By How Many Different Mechanisms Does Fenbendazole Fight Cancer?