Treatment
If no specific therapy is initiated, in 94% of patients the disease is fatal within 10–20 years following diagnosis.
- Currently, benzimidazoles (such as albendazole) are used to treat AE: only halt their proliferation and do not actually kill the parasites, side effects such as liver damage
- 2-ME2, a natural metabolite of estradiol, is tested with some results in vitro: decreased transcription of 14-3-3-pro-tumorogenic zeta-isoform, causes damage to germinal layer but does not kill parasite in vivo
- Treatment with a combination of albendazole/2-ME2 showed best results in reducing parasite burden
- Despite the improvements in the chemotherapy of echinococcosis with benzimidazole derivatives, complete elimination of the parasitic mass cannot be achieved in most of the infected patients, although there have been studies that indicate that long-term treatment with mebendazole may cause the death of the parasite.
Read more about this topic: Echinococcus Multilocularis
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—James Thurber (1894–1961)