Credits: IMDb
“I'm not great at the advice. Can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?”

This is what ‘Friends’ actor Matthew Perry’s character Chandler Bing was known for. He was known for being funny. However, he had his own struggles in his personal life and those struggles were acute depression. He was treating it with ketamine infusion therapy which is legal in the US and the UK.
Ketamine is an anaesthetic used to treat depression, anxiety and pain under supervised and controlled medical settings. However, it does have its side effects, which can lead to distortion of sight, sound and time. It can also produce calming and relaxing effects.
Ketamine increases a person’s heart rate and blood pressure. If overdosed, it can leave users confused and agitated and can cause them to hurt themselves without even realising it. It can also lead to liver damage and bladder problems.
However, when used in moderation and under the supervision of medical doctors, it can treat depression where traditional antidepressants have failed.
Prof Rupert McShane, a University of Oxford psychiatrist who runs an NHS ketamine treatment clinic told BBC that ketamine “probably turns off the area of the brain that is involved in disappointment.”
In simple terms, it cannot, be if the dosage is given in a controlled setting and as prescribed. Ketamine infusion therapy uses drugs in small doses than those used for anaesthesia. It acts faster than traditional anti-depressants, but the effects also wear off way quickly. Which is why it is important to monitor patients’ mental state for relapsing back into depression and discouraging them from overdosing on it.
There are ways of giving people ketamine. One of the ways is through “infusing”, which means to use an IV drip. However, injections, nasal sprays and capsules are also methods used to give people ketamine.
Since the dosage of ketamine used in the infusion treatment is small, it being the reason of actor Perry’s death was ruled out. The medical examiner also noted that Perry’s last ketamine infusion therapy session happened more than a week before his death, which means by the time he had died, it must have worn off.
Though Perry’s last session was more than a week before, his post-mortem showed that his blood contained a high concentration of ketamine. He had died of the “acute effects” of ketamine.
If it was not his session, then how did he get ketamine?
Prosecutors alleged that his assistant gave him at least 27 shots of ketamine in four days before his death, reported BBC.
Perry has been open about his personal struggles and this is what the doctors and dealers used against him. Martin Estrada, the US attorney for California’s Central District told the BBC that people took advantage of his condition. They charged him 165 times more than what vials of ketamine cost.
Names that have come up include Dr Salvador Plasencia, drug dealers “Ketamine Queen” aka Jasveen Sangha and Eric Fleming, and Perry’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa.
Ketamine Queen or Sangha supplied drugs that led to Perry’s death. Her home was a “drug-selling emporium,” said Estrada. More than 80 vials of ketamine, and thousands of pills including methamphetamine, cocaine and Xanax were allegedly found in her house known as the “Sangha Stash House.”
Sangha is known to deal with high-end celebs and was a “major source of supply for ketamine to others as well as Perry,” said Estrada.
Dr Plasencia called Perry a “moron” while charging him $2,000 for vials that cost only $12. He sold Perry 20 vials of ketamine between September and October 2023, costing $55,000.
He was the one who taught Iwamasa, who had no medical knowledge to inject the drug. This is after he knew that “Perry’s ketamine addiction was spiralling out of control,” as per what the investigators told the BBC.
Another dealer Fleming was told by Sangha to “delete all our messages.” While Fleming pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute drugs unlawfully, he also allegedly messaged Sangha: “Please call...Got more info and want to bounce ideas off you. I’m 90% sure everyone is protected. I never dealt with [Perry] only his assistant. So the assistant was the enabler.”
The court documents also revealed that he asked Sangha on whether the ketamine stays in your system or “is it immediately flushed out.”
The people who allegedly exploited Perry used coded language for ketamine and called it “Dr Pepper”, “bots”, or “cans.”
Selling overpriced drugs, taking advantage of Perry’s mental condition and falsifying medical records to make the drugs given to him look legitimate by Dr Plasencia is what took Perry’s life.
Iwamasa is said to have administered more than 20 shots of ketamine and three on the day Perry died. Whereas ketamine is only administered by a physician. Authorities also found that weeks before Perry’s death, Dr Plasencia allegedly bought 10 vials of ketamine and intended to sell to Perry.
He also injected Perry with a large dose, two days later. This caused him to “freeze up” and spiked his blood pressure.
Perry had always been open about his drug addictions, struggles with alcohol and his depression. He said that his openness would help others who are also struggling and wanted to be remembered by his quote which also is on the homepage of the Mattew Perry Foundation that helps others struggling with the disease of addiction: “When I die, I want helping others to be the first thing that’s mentioned.”
Five arrests have been made in the case so far.
Credit: iStock
Leading US medical organizations and experts have issued recommendations on COVID-19, flu and RSV vaccines ahead of the 2026–27 winter season.
Developed with the University of Minnesota’s Vaccine Integrity Project and the American Medical Association (AMA), the recommendations were published in JAMA.
The guidance aims to help doctors and patients make vaccination decisions and reduce the risk of severe respiratory illness.
What Do The 2026 Recommendations Say?
Flu Vaccine
RSV Vaccine
COVID-19 Vaccine
CDC Has Not Issued New COVID, RSV Guidance
The recommendations come as the CDC has not issued new guidance for RSV or COVID-19 vaccination for the 2026–27 season.
The CDC updated its COVID-19 guidance last year, moving away from a broad recommendation and advising patients to consult a healthcare provider about vaccination.
For flu, the CDC updated its clinical guidance on Tuesday but said recommendations from the July 2025 immunisation schedule remain in effect for the 2026–27 season.
The updated flu guidance does not mention the first mRNA flu vaccine, which was approved by the FDA last month for older adults.
Respiratory Viruses Continue To Pose Risks
What Did The Vaccine Evidence Show?
Experts Call For Clear Vaccine Guidance
Bruce Gellin of the Vaccine Integrity Project said Americans should have access to the latest scientific evidence and recommendations from medical experts to make informed vaccination decisions.
“Whatever happens to the federal vaccine policy process, we cannot lower that scientific standard,” he said.
Credit: AI
The potential benefits of Ivermectin and Mebendazole, two anti-parasitic drugs, for cancer treatment have sparked a debate.
A recent real-world study stated that an astonishing 84.4% clinical benefit rate was reported among cancer patients who took these two drugs together. But the number does not mean that 84% of the patients improved with the help of thesedrugs. The findings come with significant limitations.
Published in Anticancer Research in June 2026, the study followed 197 cancer patients who had been prescribed ivermectin and mebendazole off-label through a US telemedicine platform.
The patients received compounded capsules containing 25 mg of ivermectin and 250 mg of mebendazole. But only 122 patients, or 61.9%, completed the six-month follow-up.
Among those who completed follow-up, 48.4% of the patients had no tumour regression or no sign of the disease. Another 36.1% showed no change, while in 15.6% of the patients, the disease had progressed. This generated the study's 84.4% Clinical Benefit Ratio.
So, the number should not be interpreted as 84% of patients had their cancer tumours shrink or the disease disappeared.
The researchers also reported that 25.4% of participants faced side effects, most of which were mild and mainly gastrointestinal.
It is also important to note that patients were also receiving other treatments, including chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, while nearly half reported using supplements. Many also made changes to their diets.
Also read: Daraxonrasib: New Drug Approved For Pancreatic Cancer Shows Promise In Lung Cancer Treatment
This was a prospective observational study, not a randomised controlled clinical trial. There was no comparison group receiving standard treatment or a placebo.
The cancer results were also self-reported through digital surveys rather than independently verified as part of the study.
That makes it impossible to determine whether ivermectin and mebendazole caused the reported improvements.
Patients were also receiving other cancer treatments and making changes to their diets or taking supplements. These factors could have influenced the outcomes.
PubMed currently carries an 'Expression of Concern' for the paper, dated June 9, 2026. The study's own authors describe their findings as “hypothesis-generating” and say randomized controlled trials are needed.
Also read: Blocked Ears After Flight Turned Out To Be Rare Head And Neck Cancer In 22-Year-Old
Researchers are also exploring whether ivermectin can be delivered to brain tumours through the nose.
In a study in rats with glioma, ivermectin packed inside tiny nanocapsules and given through the nose reduced tumour size after 10 days.
The nano-formulation performed better than regular ivermectin, while another silica-based formulation did not have the same effect on the rats.
The idea is to use the nose as a possible route to help drugs reach the brain, where the blood-brain barrier can make drug delivery difficult.
However, this was an animal study. The results therefore show a potential research direction, not definite evidence that nasal ivermectin can treat brain cancer in humans.
Also read: Nearly 8 In 10 US Young Adults Show Signs Of Heart, Kidney Risk: Why Early Checks Matter
A 2025 case series described three people with advanced breast, prostate and melanoma cancers who self-administered fenbendazole alongside other treatments. The report described complete or near-complete remissions.
However, that paper was subsequently retracted in January 2026. PubMed now lists the retraction, making the original case series unsuitable as reliable evidence that fenbendazole treats cancer.
The study provides possible cancer treatment options that can be investigated treatment as they are not proven yet.
A 2025 review highlighted several possible anticancer mechanisms for ivermectin, including effects on YAP1, Wnt/TCF and AKT/mTOR signalling, oxidative stress and apoptosis.
But the review also noted that the human cases it examined were not designed to test ivermectin as a cancer treatment. So as of now, there is no robust clinical evidence that says ivermectin, mebendazole or fenbendazole as effective cancer treatments.
For cancer patients, these drugs should not be substituted for established treatment on the basis of these studies alone.
AI
A cancer drug that was approved in the US just last week for pancreatic cancer is also showing promise in lung cancer treatment.
The drug, daraxonrasib (Rasonque), showed encouraging results in patients with previously treated RAS-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine on September 2.
Rasonque is not approved for lung cancer yet. The new findings are early-stage evidence, and a larger Phase 3 trial is now underway.
Pancreatic cancer is considered one of the most RAS-driven cancers, with more than 90% of patients carrying tumours driven by RAS protein mutations.
RAS mutations are found in about 30% of non-small cell lung cancers, making them among the most common cancer-driving alterations in the disease. Yet, apart from treatments targeting the specific KRAS G12C mutation, patients with other RAS mutations have had few treatment options.
Also read: Daraxonrasib: US FDA Approves Once-Daily Pill for Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer
The most relevant results came from 38 patients with NSCLC who received doses of 160 to 220 mg. These patients had already been treated with chemotherapy and immunotherapy but had not received docetaxel.
The tumours shrank in about 42% of patients. The duration of response was 11.5 months, while progression-free survival was 8.3 months and overall survival was 16 months.
For comparison, earlier studies of docetaxel in this treatment setting have reported response rates of around 9% to 14%, with progression-free survival of roughly 3 to 4.5 months.
As these results come from a small, early-stage study and are not a comparison with docetaxel, they need to be interpreted further cautiously.
Also read: Blocked Ears After Flight Turned Out To Be Rare Head And Neck Cancer In 22-Year-Old
David Hong, M.D., deputy chair of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics at MD Anderson and the study's lead investigator, said, “Immunotherapy has improved outcomes for many patients with non-small cell lung cancer, but the majority of these cancers eventually progress.”
“At that point, the few treatment options available to these patients often have modest clinical benefit and substantial toxicities, so these early results are encouraging.”
The drug did cause side effects. At the Phase 3-selected dose, 51% of patients experienced a grade 3 or higher adverse event, while 71% required dose modifications and 10% discontinued treatment. Rash was particularly common, affecting 90% of patients, while diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting were also reported.
Hong noted that “the toxicities are largely manageable compared to the alternatives available.”
The interesting development comes shortly after the US FDA approved Rasonque on August 26, 2026. It is first targeted therapy in this new class for metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
In a 500-patient pancreatic cancer trial, median overall survival was 13.2 months with daraxonrasib versus 6.7 months with standard chemotherapy. Similar RAS-targeting drugs are now being developed by other companies for pancreatic, lung and colon cancers.
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