Ivermectin is an anti parasitic medication. It has been used to treat cancer in Europe and off label in the United States. Many patients take ivermectin daily to prevent COVID since the pandemic started in 2020. Below are some facts about this drug.
Satoshi Omura at the Kitasato Institute discovered Ivermectin in 1979 and was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this discovery in 2015
Ivermectin was FDA Approved for human use in 1987 to orally treat onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness, caused by the blackfly-transmitted parasite Onchocerca volvulus
Ivermectin is annually taken by close to 250 million people
Most patients treated with Ivermectin have no side-effects other than those caused by the immune and inflammatory responses against the parasite, such as fever, pruritus, skin rashes and malaise
Maximum concentration in plasma is reached 4-5 h after its oral administration
Its half-life is approximately 19 h and is metabolized in the liver by the cytochrome CYP1A and CYP3A4 complexes, generating 10 metabolites, mostly demethylated and hydroxylated.
Its excretion is mainly by feces and only 1% is excreted in the urine
Ivermectin exerts antitumor effects in different types of cancer There are ten or mroe target pathways in cancer that it exerts its effect. This means it can be used to treat various cancers. There have been published reviews about its use in cancers More studies need to be done. There are in vitro studies of its use in these cancers below
breast cancer, ovarian, prostate, colon, pancreas, head and neck, melanoma – inhibits cell proliferation, induction of apoptosis, autophagy, reversion of tamoxifen resistance, inhibits metastases
glioblastoma – growth inhibition, apoptosis, and anti-angiogenesis
Until tomorrow…