Sanare Lab – Cytotoxic Effects of Fenbendazole in Combination With Radiation

The drug fenbendazole is used to treat parasitic worm infections in humans. It is very effective against Ascaris, hookworm and Trichuris. It has also been shown to kill cancer cells in lab experiments. It destroys the microtubules that support the growth of tumor cells and blocks their ability to metabolize sugar. It also boosts production of p53, a gene that keeps cancer cells in check, when it is mutated or defective.

We studied the effect of fenbendazole in combination with local tumor irradiation on the growth of EMT6 lymphoma tumors in BALB/c mice. Diet treatment with fenbendazole or vitamins alone did not affect tumor growth, but combined vitamin and fenbendazole therapy did significantly inhibit tumor development in comparison with controls. After tumors reached a volume of about 100 mm3, the mice were randomly assigned to receive either three daily i.p. injections of 50 mg/kg fenbendazole or to have their tumors locally irradiated at 10 Gy using a Siemens Stabilipan system. The results are shown in Table I. The growth of unirradiated tumors was not affected by fenbendazole or by x-ray radiation. However, three fenbendazole treatments given one day before, 2 h after and one day after local irradiation caused significant inhibition of tumor growth. In addition, terminal total white cell and neutrophil counts were significantly (p=0.001 and 0.04, respectively) lower in the mice receiving fenbendazole than in control mice.

A similar effect was observed with combined fenbendazole and vitamin B6 treatment. This indicates that both the cytotoxic and cytostatic effects of fenbendazole are enhanced by vitamin B6. sanare lab fenbendazole

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