So, you say... I’ve heard Ivermectin has potential to slow growth of cancer cells..."

Let me know when you have research data to support the anecdotal evidence "I've heard..."

Anecdotal Evidence - information that has been observed by the person reporting but not verified. Be skeptical of anecdotal evidence such as personal stories. It is not scientifically reliable. Focus on information supported by scientific evidence and clinical studies. The quality levels of evidence from highest to lowest for medical data are:

Systematic reviews: collect and evaluate all available data/evidence within the researchers’ criteria. An example is the “Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews”. Meta studies are a systematic review.
Randomized controlled trials: participants are randomly assigned to experimental and control arms. The double-blind trial is the gold-standard of medical research where neither the participants nor the researchers know the placebo or medication/treatment is given. This is to prevent bias and to ensure the validity and reliability of the study.

Cohort observational study: participants with common traits or exposure to the proposed medications or treatments are followed over a long period of time.

Case study or report: a detailed report of result after treatment of an individual. This is formalized and reviewed anecdotal evidence.

Phases of medical trial studies cited by published medical papers:

Pre-clinical studies: laboratory experiments using cell cultures, animal or computer models. In vitro means tested In Vitro – literally ‘in glass’ means testing outside a living organism, in a test tube or petri dish, In Vivo – literally in life -means testing in a living organism, often mice. Then studies move on to humans…

Phase I trials: assess safety, dosage and side effects of the proposed medications or treatment.

Phase II trials: expand P 1 to evaluate efficacy of the proposed medications or treatment – how well it works..

Phase III trials: confirm efficacy, safety, dosage and to evaluate side effects of the proposed medications or treatment in much larger samples. This is often where randomized blind and double blind design is used. Blind means the patient does not know what they are getting; double blind means neither the patient nor the clinician know what is being dosed.

Phase IV trials: monitor long term effectiveness and safety of the medication or treatment.

Some terms regarding statistical data cited in medical journals are explained as follows:
N = number of participants: be wary of studies with a very low N.
HR = hazard ratio: HR=1 – there is no change in the proposed medication/treatment compared to control baseline. HR< 1 – there is a reduction of risks with the proposed medication/treatment. HR>1 – there is an increase risk with the proposed medication/treatment.
CI = Confidence Interval: A trial shows that a particular drug has a 20% effect within a certain time frame with 95% CI. This shows that the study, if repeated many times, it will be 95% confident that the 20% reduction will be consistently observed.
P-value = Probability Value: This measures how strong the evidence is that the hypothesis, or effect being tested, is correct, rather than the result being random, or incorrect (null hypothesis). We seek a P-value that is < =0.05 meaning that there is a 95% or better likelihood the result is attributable to what is being tested..