Oklahoma grandfather who claims a drug for DOGS cured him of 'head-to-toe' cancer is tumor-free two years after doctors gave him three months to live

• Joe Tippens, of Oklahoma was diagnosed with late-stage small cell lung cancer in 2016
• By January 2017, it had spread throughout his body 
• Joe's life expectancy was three months, but doctors enrolled him in a clinical trial that they hoped could give him up to a year longer
• A veterinarian suggested he try the dog de-worming drug, fenbendazole, which has shown cancer-fighting properties in cell studies 
• By May 2017, all cancer had disappeared from Joe's scans 
• Now, two years later, he is still cancer free and Oklahoma medical researchers plan to look into Joe's case
• WARNING: There have been no trials of fenbendazole for treating cancer, there may be risks involved and the medication is not recommended by doctors

In January 2017, Joe Tippens was certain that he would die of small cell lung cancer. 

But then a veterinarian suggested he try something unconventional, to say the least: a drug for dogs.

The medication, fenbendazole, is an anti-worm compound used to treat hookworms, roundworms and other gut parasites in animals, primarily dogs. 

In recent years, studies suggesting anti-worm drugs might have cancer-fighting properties have been cropping up in a growing number of journals.

It's far from a proven treatment, but with three months to live and nothing to lose, Joe decided to take a chance on it.

Joe Tippens was diagnosed with late stage lung caner in 2016. By 2017, it had spread throughout his body and he was given three months to live. Today, he is cancer free - and credits the dog de-worming drug he took while enrolled in a clinical trial

Joe was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer in 2016, turning his plans upside down, just two days before he was set to move to Switzerland from Oklahoma.  

He kept up a fighting attitude, but in January 2017, he got the news that no one is prepared to hear. 

The aggressive cancer was everywhere. It had spread to his liver, pancreas, bladder, stomach, neck and bones. 

His PET scan 'lit up like a Christmas tree,' he says on his website.

At that late stage of small cell lung cancer, Joe's odds of survival were less than one percent, and the average life expectancy was three months. 

He had a trans-Atlantic move planned. He was expecting a grandson. And now everything had to come to a halt. 

Doctors at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas told him they wouldn't give up, and would put him in a clinical trial that wouldn't save Joe, but might give him a year or so to live. 

He might get to meet his grandson. 

'A year (or so) sounds a lot better than 3 months, so I said "let's go for it,"' Joe writes.  

Browsing an online forum for his alma mater, Oklahoma State University, Joe saw a post that caught his eye that same month: 'If you have cancer or know someone who does, give me a shout.' 

He did, and from the poster, a veterinarian, he learned that scientists had accidentally discovered that a dog de-worming drug seemed to combat many cancers in mice. 

The same scientist that had conducted that research, as it happened, had stage 4 brain cancer, and the same prognosis Joe had been given, according to the vet.