A growing number of cancer patients are turning to ivermectin in the belief that it can treat their disease, even though there is no firm evidence that it works. The trend has been documented by researchers and is increasingly worrying doctors in mainstream medicine. Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug, not a proven cancer treatment, and physicians warn that using it this way carries real risks.
A study from the University of California, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, set out to understand why doctors are seeing cancer patients reach for the drug. Its researchers concluded that the timing of the surge was no accident. They traced much of the increase back to a single high-profile media moment rather than to any new scientific finding.
The researchers pointed to an interview from January of last year featuring the podcaster Joe Rogan and the director Mel Gibson, in which Gibson said three friends with stage four cancer no longer had cancer at all. More than 60 million people watched that interview. Soon afterwards, prescriptions for ivermectin to treat cancer began to climb sharply.
According to the research, prescriptions for ivermectin among cancer patients roughly tripled in the space of a single year. At the same time, calls to the nation's poison centres from people worried they had poisoned themselves with the drug more than doubled. The pattern suggested that many people were taking the medicine in ways it was never designed for.
Ivermectin is a medicine that won a Nobel Prize for its use against parasites, but it can be dangerous when taken to fight illnesses such as cancer. In high doses it can lead to seizures or a coma, and in extreme cases even death. Some small studies suggest it may slow the growth of cancer cells, but only in test tubes and in mice, and not in people.
Doctors in mainstream medicine say the greater danger is that patients delay or give up treatments that have proven benefits and can extend their lives. They stress that there is no firm proof that ivermectin beats cancer in humans. The concern is that placing hope in an unproven remedy can come at the cost of care that actually works.
Researchers note that the drug is being promoted largely by influencers and celebrities rather than by trusted voices within the biomedical community, which they describe as a major red flag. The United States health secretary has called ivermectin a miracle drug, and the president's son has backed selling it through the mail. Supporters point to personal stories of recovery, while the medical establishment maintains that the evidence does not match those claims.