Health · Medical Research · 1 hr ago
Deworming Drug Slows Growth of Drug-Resistant Lung Cancer in Mice
Researchers tested whether mebendazole, a medicine used to treat worm infections, could help against lung cancer that no longer responded to gefitinib.
They studied one model of EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer, in which changes to a growth-signaling protein can drive cancer cells to multiply.
In lab tests, the drug combination reduced the viability of resistant cancer cells more than either medicine alone.
In mice with tumors grown from those cells, tumors took longer to double in size with both drugs than with either drug or no treatment.
The tumors were not eliminated, and results from one model cannot show how other lung cancers would respond.
Researchers also do not yet know whether mebendazole reverses resistance or adds stress that makes cancer cells less likely to survive.
Further work is needed to understand how the drugs act together and whether enough mebendazole can reach human tumors safely and reliably.
A combination of the deworming medicine mebendazole and the targeted lung cancer drug gefitinib slowed the growth of drug-resistant tumors in mice.
In laboratory tests, the combination reduced the viability of resistant human lung cancer cells.
The study focused on one model of EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer that had become resistant to gefitinib.
The tumors were not eliminated, and the findings are preclinical.
Researchers say further work is needed to understand the treatment and whether it could work in people.
- Who
- Researchers, including pharmacology researcher Shakta Mani Satyam of RAK Medical and Health Sciences University.
- What
- The study tested mebendazole with gefitinib against lung cancer cells resistant to gefitinib. The combination slowed tumor growth in mice.
- When
- The study was published on 2026-10-13.
- Where
- The mouse experiments used tumors grown from resistant human lung cancer cells. The researchers are based at RAK Medical and Health Sciences University in the United Arab Emirates.
- Why
- Researchers aimed to exploit weaknesses that may leave cancer cells vulnerable after they develop drug resistance.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Researchers tested the medicines on resistant human lung cancer cells.
Cell viability was about 38 percent of the untreated control level with the combination.
Researchers tested the combination in mice carrying tumors grown from the resistant human cells.
Tumors in the combination group took a median of 25 days to double in size.
The study was published in PLOS ONE.
- Drug combination
- Gefitinib and mebendazole
- Cancer model
- EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer resistant to gefitinib
- Cell viability
- About 38 percent of untreated control level after 72 hours with the combination
- Tumor doubling time
- 25 days with both drugs, compared with 6.2 days without treatment
- Mouse study
- 40 days, with eight mice per treatment group
What people are saying
The exciting message is that drug resistance may not make cancer cells invulnerable; it may leave them with weaknesses that we can target
Our idea was to attack the cancer from two directions simultaneously
Gefitinib blocks the growth signal, while mebendazole disrupts the cell's internal machinery and increases stress associated with DNA replication
Our findings suggest that the combination does more than simply add another source of damage, but we cannot yet say conclusively that it fully restores sensitivity to gefitinib
Sources
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