The Testing Evidence for Using Mebendazole for Treating Glioblastoma

Executive Summary

• This article covers the evidence I could find for Mebendazole as a treatment for Glioblastoma.

Article Summary

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

Introduction

This article provides an overview covering the evidence for Mebendazole and related drugs versus Glioblastoma Multiforme. 

Many articles on this website cover the evidence for the benefits of Mebendazole for cancer. But the question of which specific cancers Mebendazole 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 #8: Glioblastoma

The following quote is from the article Modulation of Autophagy is a Potential Strategy for Enhancing the Anti-Tumor Effect of Mebendazole in Glioblastoma Cells.

In this study, we explored a novel strategy to improve MBZ efficacy using a drug combination. When glioblastoma cells were treated with MBZ, cell proliferation was dose-dependently inhibited with an IC50 of less than 1 μM. MBZ treatment also inhibited glioblastoma cell migration with an IC50 of less than 3 μM in the Boyden chamber migration assay.

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive incurable adult brain tumor, accounting for about 60% of adult brain tumors (Wu et al., 2021). The average 5 − year patient survival rate is 7.2%. Despite the development of novel therapies and techniques, little improvement in overall survival (OS) has been achieved, partly due to limited anti-cancer drug penetration through the blood-brain barrier (BBB).

However, the current standard of care using TMZ and RT for glioblastoma still leads to poor prognosis with a median OS of 14.6 months. Thus, many efforts have been made to identify TMZ adjuvants or substitutes, but no promising drugs have been found for curing glioblastoma patients.

Mebendazole inhibits the proliferation and migration of glioblastoma cells. (A) Glioblastoma cells (U87, U373, T98G, and LN18) were treated with the indicated concentrations of MBZ. After 48 h, the MTS assay was performed (left panel). The percentage of proliferation was calculated based on the cell proliferation of the untreated control group. U87 and U373 cells were treated with MBZ (1 and 3 µM) for 24 h and then observed by light microscopy (right panel). Scale bars: 100 µm. (B) Glioblastoma cells (U87, U373, T98G, and LN18) pre-treated with the indicated concentrations of MBZ for 30 min were allowed to migrate into the bottom chamber with medium containing 10% FBS for 24 h. Then, the migrated cells were counted per view field. **p < 0.01 and ×**p < 0.001.

Benzimidazole anti-helminthics can exert cytotoxicity by binding to nematode tubulin molecules at low concentrations, thereby inhibiting tubulin polymerization and microtubule formation in a fashion similar to that of colchicine (Larsen et al., 1993, Friedman and Platzer, 1980; Lacey, 1988). MBZ also inhibited tubulin polymerization at 1 µM in human glioblastoma cells and elicited in vivo anti-tumor effects in preclinical glioblastoma animal models (Bai et al., 2011). MBZ can be an attractive adjuvant candidate for TMZ because MBZ has good BBB penetration.

Adding up the Studies of Mebendazole 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 Mebendazole Works Against Cancer

There are many ways in which Mebendazole 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 Menbendazole Fight Cancer?