A new study found that 84 percent of cancer patients taking the deworming drug ivermectin alongside mebendazole reported feeling better within six months, and the numbers have set off a firestorm online.
Quick Take
- A 197-patient study found 84.4 percent of cancer patients reported clinical benefit from ivermectin and mebendazole.
- A registered clinical trial called ICONIC is now testing ivermectin with immune-checkpoint cancer drugs in humans.
- The American Cancer Society says ivermectin is not approved for cancer and has not passed rigorous human trials.
- Most patients in the study also received standard cancer treatment, making it hard to credit ivermectin alone.
The Study Behind The Viral Claim
Researchers tracked 197 cancer patients who got compounded ivermectin and mebendazole through a telehealth platform. Of the 122 who finished six months of follow-up, 84.4 percent reported some kind of clinical benefit. About a third said they had no sign of disease left, and 15.6 percent reported their tumors shrank. The study used standardized surveys at the start and end, not just loose patient memories.
That design matters. Prospective tracking with set checkpoints beats a pile of random testimonials. It also explains why the study is spreading fast on social media, where creators are turning a dense medical paper into a punchy headline about a cheap pill beating cancer. The excitement is understandable. The science, so far, is a lot more complicated than the viral clips suggest.
What The Numbers Actually Show
Here is the catch many viral posts skip. That 84.4 percent “benefit” figure lumps together very different outcomes. It counts patients whose cancer vanished right alongside patients whose cancer simply stopped growing for a while. Stable disease is not the same as remission, and without a comparison group, nobody can say the drugs caused either outcome.
Most of these patients were not taking ivermectin and mebendazole by themselves. Many kept getting chemotherapy, radiation, or immunotherapy at the same time. So when someone improves, there is no clean way to know whether the antiparasitic drugs helped, the standard treatment worked as expected, or the two combined. The researchers themselves call their findings hypothesis-generating, not proof.
Why Ivermectin Is Suddenly A Cancer Headline
This is not coming out of nowhere. Lab studies have shown ivermectin can slow tumor growth in petri dishes and animal models by messing with cell division and other cancer-related pathways. That gave researchers a real reason to study it further, and it is why a legitimate trial called ICONIC is now underway, testing ivermectin alongside immune-checkpoint cancer drugs in adult patients with solid tumors.
Public figures have poured fuel on the fire. Commentary tied to Joe Rogan’s podcast and comments from Mel Gibson pushed the idea that ivermectin and similar dewormers cure cancer, a claim fact-checkers flagged as unsupported by current evidence. A small earlier study of eight breast cancer patients given ivermectin with immunotherapy found just one partial response, one stable case, and six who got worse.
🚨 DR. WILLIAM MAKIS SPARKS DEBATE OVER REPURPOSED ANTIPARASITIC DRUGS IN CANCER RESEARCH
🔬 Fenbendazole is commonly used in veterinary medicine, while mebendazole is an established human antiparasitic drug. Researchers have also investigated mebendazole’s potential against… pic.twitter.com/7347PJbUoD
— GENIX MEDS | BUY IVERMECTIN,MEBENDAZOLE AND MORE (@genixmeds) October 16, 2026
The Scientific Case For Caution
Major cancer organizations are not shy about where they stand. The American Cancer Society states flatly that ivermectin is not approved to treat any cancer and has not gone through the clinical trials needed to confirm it is safe for that purpose. Macmillan Cancer Support in the United Kingdom goes further, saying there is currently zero real-world clinical evidence that it helps treat cancer.
Safety is the other half of the worry. High doses of ivermectin can cause seizures, severe nerve damage, or worse, and doctors warn those risks may stack on top of chemotherapy side effects patients are already fighting through. For readers who value proof over hype, that warning deserves as much attention as any viral success story circulating online right now.
What Comes Next For Patients And Doctors
None of this means the idea is dead. A cheap, decades-old drug with a strong safety record in other uses is worth testing properly, and the ICONIC trial is exactly that kind of test. What patients deserve now is a randomized, controlled study comparing ivermectin against standard care head-to-head, with independent doctors checking the scans rather than self-reported surveys.
Until that happens, the honest answer sits between two extremes. The early signal is real enough to justify more research, but it is nowhere near strong enough to replace proven cancer treatment. Patients considering this path owe it to themselves to talk it through with an oncologist first, not a social media feed promising a miracle at a fraction of the cost.
Sources:
youtube.com, clinicaltrials.gov, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, zenodo.org, macmillan.org.uk, cancer.org, science.feedback.org
