**5. Clinical experience with ivermectin**

As mentioned above, there has been extensive clinical use of ivermectin as an antiparasitic, and the drug has been repurposed for use against other pathogens and nonparasitic conditions in humans. However, despite considerable preclinical evidence of antitumor effects of ivermectin, it is curious that no clinical studies of ivermectin against cancer have been reported nor clinical trials launched. However, there is a case report on three children with refractory and heavily pretreated acute myeloblastyic

#### *Ivermectin: Potential Repurposing of a Versatile Antiparasitic as a Novel Anticancer DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99813*

leukemia. In the three cases, ivermectin was at 1 mg/Kg either alone or in combination with Ara-C. Two of them had clinical improvement with durable stable disease in one, a and complete hematological response the second. The third one receiving ivermectin alone had no response. Though anecdotic, these data demonstrate that ivermectin can be safely administered at dosis five times higher the recommended dose of 0.200 mg/Kg, and that can show efficacy combined with cytotoxics [28].

Here, we briefly review the clinical experience with ivermectin as an antiparasitic as well as in other repurposed indications, with special attention to its toxicities and safety and its clinical pharmacology, the data of which can be a basis for future clinical trials of ivermectin against cancer.
