ReviewCancers2019
Mebendazole as a Candidate for Drug Repurposing in Oncology: An Extensive Review of Current Literature.
Review in Cancers, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06335160 (Clinical Study to Evaluate the Possible Efficacy and Safety of Mebendazole in Patients With Ulcerative Colitis Treated With Mesalamine), which is not on this map. Cited by 80 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Clinical Study to Evaluate the Possible Efficacy and Safety of Mebendazole in Patients With Ulcerative Colitis Treated With Mesalamine
Who cites it
80 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 149 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of ongoing clinical trials in optic pathway gliomas.Child's nervous system : ChNS : official journal of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery · 2020Pooled it
- Mebendazole as an Adjunct Therapy with Mesalamine to Increase Efficacy and Maintenance Therapy for Ulcerative Colitis Patients: A Pilot Study.Current pharmaceutical design · 2026Trial
- A phase 2a clinical study on the safety and efficacy of individualized dosed mebendazole in patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Ketogenic diet as a metabolic vehicle enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of mebendazole and devimistat in juvenile syngeneic high-grade glioma.Cell reports. Medicine · 2026Article
- From Scaffold to Therapy: Benzimidazole Pharmacophore Evolution in Breast Cancer Research.Chemistry & biodiversity · 2026Review
- Review
- Comparison Between Phenotypic Profile and Functional Aspects of IL-9-Producing Lymphocytes, Th17 and Tfh of Individuals From Endemic and Non-Endemic Areas for Hookworm Infection.Parasite immunology · 2026Article
- Mebendazole Shows Antiproliferative and Antimigratory Effects in Paediatric Low-Grade Glioma Models.Oncology research · 2026Article
- Evaluating the Efficacy of Mebendazole Repurposing for Ovarian Cancer Therapy Using Optical Coherence Tomography.Journal of biophotonics · 2026Article
- Characterization of the anticancer effect of mebendazole and its interaction with standard cytotoxic drugs in patient tumor cellsOncology reports · 2026Article
- Mebendazole Attenuates Cellular Invasion in a 3D Culture Model of Meningioma by Disrupting Rho-GTPase-Mediated Microtubule Function.Oncology research · 2026Article
- Article
- Girdin silencing enhances mebendazole-mediated anticancer activity: a combinatorial therapeutic strategy for ovarian cancer.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2025Article
- Mebendazole-Treated Human Monocyte-Derived Dendritic Cells Represent Promoted Immunogenic Phenotype with Augmented Expression of Inflammatory Markers.Advanced pharmaceutical bulletin · 2025Article
- Stearyl amine tailored spanlastics embedded within tetronicDaru : journal of Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences · 2025Article
- Old drugs, new challenges: reassigning drugs for cancer therapies.Cellular & molecular biology letters · 2025Review
- Article
- Article
- USP5 Binds and Stabilizes EphA2 to Increase Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Radioresistance.International journal of biological sciences · 2025Article
- Mebendazole inhibits PELI3-mediated ubiquitination of TRADD in non-small cell lung cancer cells.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
20 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Anticancer treatment efficacy is limited by the development of refractory tumor cells characterized by increased expression and activity of mechanisms promoting survival, proliferation, and metastatic spread. The present review summarizes the current literature regarding the use of the anthelmintic mebendazole (MBZ) as a repurposed drug in oncology with a focus on cells resistant to approved therapies, including so called "cancer stem cells". Mebendazole meets many of the characteristics desirable for a repurposed drug: good and proven toxicity profile, pharmacokinetics allowing to reach therapeutic concentrations at disease site, ease of administration and low price. Several in vitro studies suggest that MBZ inhibits a wide range of factors involved in tumor progression such as tubulin polymerization, angiogenesis, pro-survival pathways, matrix metalloproteinases, and multi-drug resistance protein transporters. Mebendazole not only exhibits direct cytotoxic activity, but also synergizes with ionizing radiations and different chemotherapeutic agents and stimulates antitumoral immune response. In vivo, MBZ treatment as a single agent or in combination with chemotherapy led to the reduction or complete arrest of tumor growth, marked decrease of metastatic spread, and improvement of survival. Further investigations are warranted to confirm the clinical anti-neoplastic activity of MBZ and its safety in combination with other drugs in a clinical setting.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.