The National Cancer Institute is using federal funds to study whether cancer can be cured by ivermectin, a cheap, off-patent anti-parasitic and deworming drug that fringe medical groups falsely claimed could treat COVID-19 during the pandemic and have since touted as a cure-all.
Large, high-quality clinical trials have resoundingly concluded that ivermectin is not effective against COVID-19. And there is no old or new scientific evidence to support a hypothesis that ivermectin can cure cancer—or justify any such federal expenditure. But, under anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who is otherwise well-known for claiming to have a parasitic worm in his brain—numerous members of the medical fringe are now in powerful federal positions or otherwise hold sway with the administration.
During a January 30 event, Anthony Letai, a cancer researcher the Trump administration installed as the director of the NCI in September, said the NCI was pursuing ivermectin.
“There are enough reports of it, enough interest in it, that we actually did—ivermectin, in particular—did engage in sort of a better preclinical study of its properties and its ability to kill cancer cells and we’ll probably have those results in a few months. So we are taking it seriously.”
The comments were highlighted today in a report from KFF Health News. Ars Technica was also at the event, “Reclaiming Science: The People’s NIH,” which was hosted by the MAHA [Make America Healthy Again] Institute. In the rest of his comments, Letai seemed to make a noticeable effort to temper expectations while also trying to avoid offending any ivermectin believers. “It’s not going to be a cure-all for cancer,” he said. At another point, he said that even if there are signals of anti-cancer properties in the preclinical studies, “I can tell you again, it’s not a really strong signal.”
But, he quickly noted, “this doesn’t rule out… individual reports of people having taken it that had a response to their cancer. This doesn’t invalidate their personal experience.”
“Ridiculous”
KFF noted that among those individual reports is one from Mel Gibson, who said in a January 2025 episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast that a regimen of drugs that includes ivermectin cured stage 4 cancers in three of his friends. The episode has been viewed more than 12 million times.
NCI scientists who spoke to KFF under the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation blasted the funding. “I am shocked and appalled,” one said. “We are moving funds away from so much promising research in order to do a preclinical study based on nonscientific ideas. It’s absurd.”
Another called the suggestion that the NCI had previously overlooked ivermectin’s potential “ridiculous.”
“This is not a new idea they came up with,” the NCI scientist said.
While the revelation that the NCI is funding research based on fringe anecdotes rather than scientific evidence is spurring backlash, it also raises new questions about Letai, who was otherwise a respected cancer researcher prior to taking the role of NCI director.
In an interview with STAT News last month, Letai was asked if there were ethical lines he wouldn’t cross for the administration. He responded: “My job is to progress the mission of the National Cancer Institute to reduce suffering from cancer with the resources that I’m given. If it got to a point where I couldn’t do my job, I would feel required to quit.”
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