To take or not: cancer patients in dilemma over dog vermicide

By Bahk Eun-ji

The government has cautioned cancer patients against taking dog parasiticides which were claimed in a recent YouTube video to be effective in curing cancer.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has cautioned cancer patients against taking fenbendazole-containing dog parasiticides, after it was rumored the ingredient helps cure cancer. Gettyimagesbank

The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said, Monday, cancer patients should not take fenbendazol-containing dog parasiticide due to possible side effects as fenbendazol has not been tested on humans yet.

“All medicines, including anticancer drugs, should be proven safe and effective in clinical tests on humans,” Park Chang-won, director of the pharmaceutical safety bureau of the KCDC, said in a statement. “Fenbendazol's use in cancer treatment as being spread on social media, and a YouTube video which mentions an American patient and a journal article, is a result of experiments on animals, not humans.”

There are already many anticancer drugs on the market, the safety of which has been guaranteed following tests on humans, and their substances and effects of fighting cancer are similar to fenbendazol's, the KCDC said.

The dog vermicide's unconfirmed effectiveness in treating cancer has gone viral among online communities of Korean cancer patients following the YouTube video clip about the U.S. cancer patient, Joe Tippens, who was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer in 2016. In the video, doctors told Tippens that his cancer had already spread to his body, including the liver, pancreas, bladder, stomach and bones in January 2017. He had only three months to live and was told to check into a hospice.

Instead of giving up, he decided to take a dog parasiticide with daily vitamin E supplements and Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive version of the marijuana plant that contains little to no tetrahydrocannbinol (THC). After taking the drug for three months, his scan showed no signs of cancer and confirmed that he was cured of the cancer.

He was also taking an experimental cancer-fighting drug, but he said out the 1,100 patients on that clinical trial, he was the only one cured.

The video clip has pushed terminal cancer patients to try the dog medicine, and pharmacies have reported that they ran out of dog vermicides and received frequent inquiries about the drugs in stock.

The KCDC warned of side effects such as damage to blood circulation, nerves or liver, when taking the veterinary drugs in high doses for a long period.

“When a patient, who has weak immunity due to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, takes anticancer drugs for humans and dog parasiticides together, it can cause unexpected side effects,” Park said.

“The KCDC will keep providing information about the hazards of cancer patients taking fenbendazole-containing dog drugs in cooperation with expert groups such as the Korean Cancer Association, and guide the patients to get adequate treatment.”