Cancer Fighter: Ivermectin

Really?

Dear Friends,

Hello and welcome back!

Next up in our “Cancer Fighters” series — Ivermectin.

(Are you serious?)

Yes! In the words of Yogi Berra, this is looking like Deja-vu all over again.

Our plucky little friend — the ultimate pharmaceutical underdog, the Little Engine That Could, the redheaded stepchild of the drug industry — is back again (!) making headlines, raising cheers, confounding experts, and getting itself censored all across the internet.

Hype? Hoax? Innocent pawn of conspiracy-theorist overexuberance? Desperate refuge for ignorant, gullible and small-minded people? Or dragon-slayer?

You be the judge. Let’s jump into it! (This is gonna be good :)

First of all it seems like we’ve been here before, no? I remember back in the days of COVID…

Me: “Ivermectin has some promising evidence and early clinical data; I think I’d like to use it for my COVID patients.”

The System: “But it’s not FDA approved for that reason.”

Me: “But it’s not the FDA’s job to determine all the possible uses or misuses of a medication — that’s called ‘medical decision-making’ and is the purvey only of licensed practitioners.”

The System: “But large scale trials haven’t been done.”

Me: “But my patient is struggling to breath and trying not to die, meanwhile getting either turned away from the local ER or offered only intubation and Remdesivir.”

The System: …… (radio silence)

Me: Hello?!

The System: “You’re a quack and we will come after you.”

Me:

Hope or Hype?

Let me start by being making the most objective criticisms of Ivermectin as regards cancer:

• It is not well-established.

• No large-scale morbidity or mortality clinical trials have been done.

• We don’t have enough data to tell you “X dose means you are Y percentage more likely to be alive in 12 months.”

• It is not standard of care.

Fair enough…But that need not be the end of the story — especially for patients without many other great options. I would say fair descriptors include emerging, investigational, or promising, and — for the right person and situation — even compelling.

Let’s see what Bing says:

“Great potential.” OMG! WHAT?! How did Bill Gates take a day off from his censorship duties and let this slip out? .. I mean, this is inconceivable.

Then we have that loony, subversive Florida Surgeon General making unhinged recommendations like…

WHAT!?

(Shout out to Dr. Joseph Ladapo — a man of deep integrity, humanism and conviction. He is a personal friend from our Harvard Medical School days and former basketball and study partner… Joe, we love you and stay strong!)

Now why would this be? Well, turns out that Ivermectin…

1. Induces Apoptosis (Programmed Cell Death)

Did you know that all cells have the ability to eliminate themselves by entering a process called “apoptosis”? Apoptosis is a form of guided, programmed cell death that allows the body to remove damaged, unnecessary, or potentially harmful cells in a controlled and orderly way.

For example, during embryonic development, it helps sculpt structures like fingers and toes by removing unneeded cells. In the immune system, apoptosis eliminates infected or malfunctioning cells, such as those with DNA damage, preventing them from becoming cancerous.

Turns out that Ivermectin triggers apoptosis in certain cancer cell lines.

2. Kills cancer stem cells.

Cancer stem cells are the “seeds” that spawn further cancer growth — but they are not typically targeted by traditional approaches including radiation, surgery or chemotherapy; hence their failure rates.

Watch this video to understand more:

What this means, practically, is that measures should be taken to destroy cancer stem cells wherever they may be hiding.

Turns out Ivermectin directly kills cancer stem cells.

(Extra credit: so does fenben/mebendazole, doxycycline, metformin, atorvastatin, green tea extract (EGCG), melatonin, vitamin D3, curcumin, berberine, omega-3 fatty acid, resveratrol, aspirin, diclofenac, and phosphodiesterase 5-inhibitors)

For more reading: https://imahealth.org/cancer-stem-cells/

3. Disrupts cancer signaling pathways.

Imagine your body as a city with a traffic light system. Imagine that traffic light system operates during rush hour in a newly developing city (youth). Once the city is built (adulthood), the system mostly shuts down. But in certain rogue neighborhoods (tumors), this traffic controller comes back online and starts creating bypasses, shortcuts, and green lights for dangerous drivers (cancer cells), allowing them to speed through red zones, avoid checkpoints, and grow unchecked.

One of these traffic control systems is called the “Hedgehog Pathway”.

Now you already know what I’m going to tell you next, right? :)

Ivermectin decreases the activity of the Hedgehog pathway. (Extra credit: so does fenbend/mebendzole, doxycycline, vitamin D, curcumin, and sulforaphane.)

Ivermectin also blocks other cancer signaling pathways such as Wnt, Notch, NFkB, STAT3, and P13/Akt.

4. Works synergistically with chemo to make it more effective.

4. Non small-cell lung cancer: Ivermectin + Paclitaxel

   • Increased intracellular Paclitaxel concentration 8-fold.

   • Reduced effective chemo dose required for 50% tumor regression from 15→2 mg/kg.

   • Extended progression-free survival from 4.1→9.7 months.

• Triple-Negative Breast Cancer — Ivermectin combinations

• Colorectal Cancer — Ivermectin + 5-FU

Further Reading:

• IMA cancer protocol, page 92

• Ivermectin, a potential anticancer drug derived from an antiparasitic drug

• Antitumor effects of ivermectin at clinically feasible concentrations

• Doxycycline, salinomycin, monensin and ivermectin repositioned as cancer drugs

Where’s there’s this much smoke, there’s fire.

I mean, it’s on Rogan, for crying out loud…

And then we have case reports and testimonials spreading like wildfire all over the internet….

I have used it with scores of patients and am confident it is doing them good. But here’s my most poignant true story:

A concerned, proactive and research-driven man reached out and asked me for help with his mom who was fighting terminal cancer, hoping we would start Ivermectin and other repurposed medications and supplements. We had several Zoom calls from her retirement home in Arizona. To be frank, she seemed consistently disinterested, skeptical, tired, withdrawn and hopeless about the whole process.

Apparently, she discussed our treatment plans — in critical and skeptical terms — to her oncologist and visiting home nurse. She seemed to be seeking validation to quit the process.

One day the nurse turned around, walked over and closed the door for privacy, walked back to her bedside, put her hand on her thigh, looked her straight in the eye and said “No matter what you do, do not stop taking that Ivermectin.”

The patient was absolutely flabbergasted. The nurse then related that Ivermectin was the only thing that had recently saved her father’s life after he was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer with multiple metastases.

But wait, there’s more!

If you’ve happened not to catch the ongoing revelations of the benefits of Ivermectin, here’s a recap:

• Inhibits SARS-COV2 viral replication

• Binds SARS spike protein

• Inhibits flu and RSV viral replication (which is why it’s included in the IMA flu and RSV protocols).

  • Bonus for all you world travelers: It’s also active against Zika, Dengue, West Nile, Yellow Fever and HIV (read all about it).

• Reduces inflammation

  • I raised a curious eyebrow the first time a patient told me “I took Ivermectin and my hip arthritis felt better,” or “Ivermectin helped my back pain.”… Then I did the research and found Ivermectin has systemic anti-inflammatory effects (blocks TNF-alpha, IL-6 and NF-kB).

  • So when a patient told me “I rubbed topical Ivermectin on my eczema patches and it did wonders,” I just smiled knowingly.

• Improves blood sugar and cholesterol in animal models

• Improves the GI microbiome

  • Boosts levels of the probiotic Bifidobacterium. This finding comes from the research of Dr. Sabine Hazan.

Safety:

Ivermectin is typically very safe and very well-tolerated. Cancer patients who took Ivermectin at five times the standard dose (up to 1mg/kg) daily for up to 180 consecutive days had no serious adverse effects (read here).

Most common side effects are blurry vision, nausea, headaches, or muscle aches — which resolve with lowering or discontinuing the dose.

More serious complications can arise when a patient has a genetic variation ( in the ABCB1 gene) that compromises the blood-brain barrier, thus allowing Ivermectin to accumulate in the brain. Tremor, confusion, amnesia, and convulsions have been reported (read here).

Caution and reduced dosing is advised for people taking CYP34A inhibitors

• ketoconazole, itraconazole

• HIV medications

• grapefruit juice

• erythromycin

• diltiazem

• verapamil

Treatment:

Ivermectin should only be obtained from a licensed domestic pharmacy (quality assurance) and taken under the supervision of a healthcare professional, as it is highly bioactive, the dosing for cancer differs from that for parasites or COVID, and it has interactions with other medications and supplements.

Conclusion:

So there we have it, friends: The Little Medicine That Keeps on Giving.

I WishYou and Your Loved Ones Health and Healing,

I Remain,

Very Truly Yours,

P.S. Looking for an integrative cancer physician?

Michael K. Turner, M.D., is a graduate of Stanford University, Harvard Medical School, and The Mayo Clinic. He practices Integrative Medicine in his own national concierge practice, providing personalized approaches (including hormones, sleep, recovery, nutrition, supplements, and exercise) to help people achieve their optimal state of health. Called “genuine”, “caring”, and “the best doctor in the world” by patients, he brings a high degree of empathy, trademark optimism, and a holistic approach to patient care. He brings a passion for excellence to everything he does. He believes in living and modeling a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

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