When Joe Tippens was diagnosed with terminal small cell lung cancer, it turned his world upside down. He was given less than a one percent chance of survival and just three months to live. But Joe wasn’t ready to give up. He was determined to fight this disease using a completely unconventional method, a dog-deworming medicine that had never before been used as an anticancer drug.

Tippens learned that a scientist at Merck Animal Health had performed a series of cancer experiments in mice. During the process, she discovered that a dog-deworming medicine called fenbendazole was batting 1.000 in killing different types of cancers in the mice. She then went on to use the medicine on herself when she developed a tumor in her brain, and cured it within just 12 weeks. She told her story and Joe decided to try it out for himself.

Despite being skeptical at first, Joe ordered the cheap veterinary medicine, fenbendazole (Panacur C), and started taking it seven days a week. He also added a few other things like curcumin and Vitamin E, a combination now known as the Joe Tippens Protocol.

Fenbendazole is a member of the family of drugs known as benzimidazoles and works by blocking the formations of proteins that cancer cells need to multiply. Joe has now been cancer-free for four years and is still going strong. He is now urging other cancer patients to follow his example. He hopes to eventually raise enough money to get the fenbendazole treatment into clinical trials, where it can be tested against other treatments like chemotherapy.