Fenbendazole For Pancreatic Cancer
The pancreas, a large organ deep inside the abdomen, produces enzymes that help digest food and control blood sugar. It also produces hormones that regulate metabolism and the endocrine system. Pancreatic cancer, which starts in the pancreas and spreads to nearby tissues, is one of the most lethal types of cancer in the United States. In fact, it is responsible for about 7 percent of all cancer deaths. Unlike many other cancers, it’s not easy to detect in its early stages because of the location of the organ inside the belly and because tumors often don’t produce symptoms until they are very advanced.
Pancreatic cancers grow and spread by releasing signals that increase the number of blood vessels in a tumor, which gives cancer cells more fuel to multiply and grow. They also secrete a thick coating around the tumor that hides it from the body’s immune system and makes it difficult for drugs to penetrate. In addition, cancers are so dense that they trap healthy cells within them.
Scientists have been searching for ways to prevent or treat pancreatic cancer because it is so deadly. Now, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have found that an anti-parasitic drug called fenbendazole, or MBZ, prevents pancreatic cancer’s initiation, progression and metastasis in genetically engineered mice. The findings appear in the journal Scientific Reports.
In lab experiments, fenbendazole and other benzimidazole carbamates (such as mebendazole) interfere with microtubules, which are a type of protein that forms the scaffolding that holds the structure and shape of cells. Textbook depictions of cells often show them as floating in amorphous bags of liquid, but the fact is that they establish their structure and movement through a complex network of proteins such as tubulin. Benzimidazole drugs like fenbendazole, mebendazole and parbendazole block the formation of these microtubules and inhibit cancer cell growth.
Moreover, these drugs can rejuvenate exhausted tumor-killing T cells and stimulate them to kill more pancreatic cancer cells, making them useful in combination therapy with other experimental treatments such as PD-1 inhibitors and CD40 agonist antibodies. This research was led by CCR investigators Christine Alewine, M.D., and Dimitri G. Trembath, Ph.D., both of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Other authors included Tara Williamson, Michelle Carvalho de Abreu and Byunghak Kang.
This research is supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants GM070924 and P01CA193690). Dr. Alewine is a Lasker Clinical Research Scholar. Additional support for this study was provided by the American Cancer Society and the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. Dr. Riggins has a financial interest in Benizole Therapeutics, PBC. He has disclosed this interest in his presentation and the manuscript. The Johns Hopkins University Conflict of Interest Policy applies to this work. The full disclosure form is available on the Conflict of Interest Policy website. The authors thank the members of the cancer team at the Center for Molecular Biology and Cancer Research for their assistance. This article is based on a press release from Johns Hopkins Medicine. fenbendazole for pancreatic cancer