As the third-most lethal cancer in the United States, with only a 1% five-year survival rate for people with its most aggressive form, pancreatic cancer has long been a target of researchers who search for ways to slow or stop its growth and spread. Now, a team of Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers has found that an anti-parasitic drug prevents pancreatic cancer’s initiation, progression, and metastasis in genetically engineered mice. In a study published online on July 6, 2021 in Oncotarget, Gregory Riggins, MD, PhD, Professor of Neurosurgery and Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and his team used two different mouse models to determine that the anti-parasitic drug mebendazole could slow or stop the growth and spread of both early and late-stage pancreatic cancer. “We think that mebendazole could have a role in all stages,” Riggins says. “It was particularly effective for pancreatic cancer that was detected early.”