Newly Diagnosed with Esophageal Adenocarcinoma Stage 2-3

I have the same cancer, they found it July 1 2025, stage Ii/III, I investigated a treatment by a Dr who uses Ivermectin and Fenbendazole, ultimately decided it wasnt worth the risk and have taken the recommended FLOT treatment with good results so far. I asked every dr about alternative treatments and they all said the ivermectin was investigated years ago and deemed to be no better than current best "traditional" treatments.

@noslrac Hi thank you for your feedback and input. My Oncologist is recommending the FLOT treatment as well. How are you doing with this treatment? Can I ask what your side effects have been? I'm super sensitive to internal medicine, just to give you an idea I have a longer listed of medications I am allergic to then the list of medications I can handle. So, I'm really concerned about the chemo treatments. Thanks for your reply.

I don't have anything to offer by way of alternative medicine, but I'm generally medicine avoidant. I really try to limit if/when/why I take anything, so getting FLOT - and then all the extra meds for the side effects has been hard. I don't think I've been helping myself by not taking the meds...I've had lots of nausea and other GI issues all week which has made me miserable. So, back to taking the meds for that! I also am greatly impacted by the oxaliplatin and have developed neuropathy with muscle stiffness and finger knife sensations. That lasts hard for about 24 hours (so far), and then I just need to be careful for a few more days and wear gloves. Hair loss kicked in after my 2nd FLOT infusion. And for several days it felt like someone was squeezing/pinching/twisting my tumor. The upside is that I can tell the drugs have been reducing the tumor size because I can actually swallow food now without choking! You're a few weeks ahead of me with getting diagnosed, so maybe this is all old news by now and you are already well on your journey...but best wishes anyway!

Hi Todd, I am sorry to hear of your diagnosis. I was diagnosed with esophageal adenocarcinoma 2 years ago, but I had 2 DNA mismatch markers which put me in line for a year of immunotherapy as the only treatment.
In response to your query, have been an acupuncturist for 35 years and treated myself as well as many other cancer patients that have undergone the chemotherapy and radiation routine.
The acupuncture and herbal treatments I have used have made the Western cancer treatments more tolerable and effective. There is a lot of research you can look up to give you more information.
I wish you grace and ease in your journey.

Hi Todd. First of all hope you are feeling ok - it’s such a difficult time at first. My now 64yr old healthy (we thought) husband was in stage 3 T3 N1 M0 2.5 yrs ago. He had 2 months of FLOT, an Ivor Lewis Esophagectomy and then 2 more months of FLOT (we are in the UK and since then the protocol has changed to include immunotherapy). The treatment saved his life. He is active, working normally and eating fairly normally but smaller portions. No pain. He got his life back due to the FLIT and surgery. The first series of FLOT chemo was not hard for him. He carried on doing exercise. He had a few minor side effects like tingling fingers and fatigue. The steroids that they give to suppress the side effects disturbed his sleep. The next series of FLOT after the op was a bit harder as he was very tired from surgery but he got through it without major problems. It was definitely worth it as we believe he’d now be dead without it…The reaction to chemo is so individual it’s hard to predict. But this disease is a hard one and it will grow and metastasise without conventional treatments and surgery. Regarding alternative treatments : a few months after the last FLOT series when he was feeling stronger I read and listened to podcasts about metabolic treatment of cancer which includes the use of repurposed medications and also low carb/ keto nutrition. My husband refused to go on a strict ketogenic diet but eats less carbs now and did go to a physician who treats cancer through metabolic pathways ( which are still considered experimental) as well as using conventional treatments. He put him on a regime of repurposed meds of Mebendazole, Atorvastatin, Metformin and also Doxycillin ( which he stopped due to side effects). These four meds work synergistically to help stop cancer cells from growing. In May it will be 3 yrs since diagnosis … so far so good. I don’t know if my husband got lucky or this alternative treatment has helped but it’s not doing any harm so we are continuing with it. His prognosis when first diagnosed was poor and the tumor had already burst out of local lymph nodes. There was not enough evidence to use Ivermectin but Mebebdazole is a different anti parasitic drug which we are using. However, I can’t state strongly enough the importance of getting through the conventional treatment and surgery first however tough it may seem. It won’t go away without it. Sending good carma … hope you get through it easily and you’ll soon be on the mend. .

Hi all, there's a lot of information as well as misinformation circulating about ivermectin, fenbendazole, and mebendazole (antiparasite medicines) and their use as a treatment for cancer.

Researchers are studying antiparasite medicines to see if they may be used as an anti-cancer drug and early studies show promise. Please note that this research is in the early stages (mice studies) and has not yet been tested in human trials. like others have said, these medications are not a proven standard treatment.

Please talk to your doctor before self administering these medications. They may do more harm than good.

Here's additional information that Mayo Clinic experts would like you to know:
- Mayo Clinic on use of ivermectin or other dewormers to treat cancer https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/about-connect/newsfeed-post/mayo-clinic-on-use-of-ivermectin-or-other-dewormers-to-treat-cancer/

Ivermectin and other antiparasite medicines were initially developed to get rid of intestinal infection caused by threadworms. They are being investigated as "repuposed drugs." Here's a clear and well-written article about repurposed drugs being researched for cancer.

- Separating fact from fiction: repurposed drugs in cancer treatment https://www.anticancerfund.org/en/blog/separating-fact-fiction-repurposed-drugs-cancer-treatment