The drug ivermectin was demonized by people who seemed to want to prevent an effective early treatment of patients infected with COVID-19. This antiparasitic agent has been used for many years to safely treat tens of millions of Africans with serious parasite infections. It also works to prevent such infections.

A tremendous number of studies have demonstrated ivermectin’s safety when it is used appropriately. But acting as watchdog for the pharmaceutical companies, the media demonized this safe and effective drug on behalf of their interests.

A number of studies are now showing that ivermectin is a useful anticancer agent, with properties that make it even more effective than almost all chemotherapy drugs. At the least, it should be used as a powerful enhancer for traditional treatments.

We now know that the reason most cancers recur is that the origin of the malignancy — the cancer stem cells — are resistant to almost all traditional chemotherapy agents. Studies have shown that ivermectin has the unique ability to inhibit these cancer stem cells and thus reduce tumor growth and recurrence.

Of particular interest was the finding that a highly malignant and resistant form of breast cancer (triple-negative breast cancer) is potentially highly immunogenic, meaning that the cancer is very sensitive to destruction by immune cells. Unfortunately, most of these tumors contain very few cancer-killing immune cells.

In a recent study, researchers found that ivermectin could convert these tumors into a state that makes them excellent targets for destruction by immune cells, as happens with checkpoint inhibitors, which recruit the person’s immune system to gear up an intense attack on cancer cells. Ivermectin dramatically increases breast cancer cells’ susceptibility to such immune killing.

Ivermectin has also been shown to enhance cell-signaling within cancer cells. This aids in their destruction. In addition, it inhibits angiogenesis, induces autophagy (triggering cancer cell death), and prompts immune-directed cancer cell killing.

Combined with other cancer inhibitors and immune stimulants, ivermectin is poised to play a major role in cancer treatment.