Funding needed for long-used drug showing new promise for
cancer - Pharmaceuticals not interested!
This is very interesting, as cancer is one of the the most prevalent
disease of modern times and so far the scientific/medical/pharmaceutical
community has concentrated its efforts in destroying cancer cells with
toxic chemicals and/or surgery/radiation! This research from the
University of Alberta, Canada, is a departure from that model in the
sense that it opens up a door to the possibility that cancer may now be
seen a result of metabolic imbalance, like mitochondria malfunction, and
not the other way around! This is very important because it validates an
important principle of alternative medicine - that dis-ease is an
impairment of the bodie's inherent ability to regulate(balance)
metabolic processes at the cellular level and that the best approach is
to provide the cell with the proper Biophysical (oxygenation, alkalizing
minerals, phytonutrients, etc) and Bioenergetic (Yoga, Qigong,
Acupuncture, Electromagnetic, Visualization, Prayer, etc.) to achieve
optimal functioning!
Domingo
Here is the most rigorous study I could find on DCA:
Here is a comment from a reader about the Pharmaceutical companies and
their unwillingness to fund clinical trials for this Drug:
"I have been suspicious of the pharmaceutical industry for years,
convinced that innocent lives were intentionally being forfeited in the
name of profits. I believe this is finally going to be proven in the
coming months. The big drug companies do not want cures, they want R/X
patients to be dependent on them for life, ensuring their own futures
through profits. If it is found they intentionally avoided cures by
steering research dollars away from 'sensitive' areas, there should be
criminal charges and prosecutions. I can't help but wonder how many of
our deceased loved ones should still be alive today if it weren't for
the greed of the big pharms. Lastly, with the huge cost for cancer
treatments, Health Canada should be mandating the follow-up and
procurement of these DCA treatments. I recognize the economy of the
country could be threatened by the collapse of the cancer 'industry' but
how can human sacrifice be justified?"
by /Gary Hotte/
Jan 18, 2007
Here is a listing of related links with information regarding DCA
Long-used drug shows new promise for cancer
Therapy prescribed for metabolic disorder now found to shrink
tumours in lab rats
ANDRÉ PICARD
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Imagine, if you will, a drug that shrinks cancer cells and can even make
tumours disappear. A couple of spoonfuls a day of powder in a glass of
water is all you need.
There are no nasty side effects like nausea and hair loss, and no damage
to internal organs such as with traditional chemotherapy. And it costs
only about $2 a dose.
Too good to be true?
Not according to a Canadian researcher who stumbled upon the potentially
new anti-cancer agent called dichloroacetate, or DCA, a drug long used
to treat rare metabolic disorders.
The Globe and Mail
"This is one of the most exciting results I've ever had," said Evangelos
Michelakis, an associate professor of medicine at the University of
Alberta in Edmonton.
"But I can't be overenthusiastic until it works in a human being."
In a paper published in today's edition of the medical journal Cancer
Cell, Dr. Michelakis and a group of researchers from the U of A and the
University of Ottawa, report on how they were able to use DCA to shrink
human lung-, breast- and brain-cancer tumours in both lab rats and in a
test tube.
While this type of research in laboratory animals does not generally
generate a lot of enthusiasm, in this case the findings are creating a
stir because DCA has actually been used safely in humans for decades --
in treating rare inherited metabolic disorders such as lactic acidosis,
not cancer.
"One of the big concerns about drugs is that they can harm people but we
already know this drug is safe. It doesn't even affect normal cells,"
Dr. Michelakis said.
The research challenges one of the fundamental premises of cancer
biology, that mitochondria (the energy producing units of cells) are
permanently damaged by cancer.
What Dr. Michelakis and his team found is that while mitochondrial
function is suppressed, it can be revived with DCA, which makes the
cancer cells susceptible to dying. (Most cancers become resistant to
standard chemotherapy by suppressing mitochondrial function.)
In other words, the drug works by revving up the engines of normal
cells, allowing them to work normally and driving cancer cells to commit
suicide.
"This is the holy grail of cancer therapeutics -- how to kill the cancer
cells and spare normal cells," Dr. Michelakis said.
Dario Altieri, a professor in the department of cancer biology at the
University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Mass., said the
research is "exciting" and that DCA has a lot of potential.
Dr. Altieri said DCA needs to move quickly from the lab into human
testing. But he cautioned that there is a real possibility that will not
happen, largely for economic reasons.
There is no longer a patent on DCA, meaning it is not owned by any one
company. As a result, there is little chance of making a large profit,
even if the drug works remarkably well, and hence no incentive for
pharmaceutical companies to invest in research.
Dr. Michelakis acknowledged this is a real practical problem, but he
expressed hope that public funding bodies like the Canadian Institutes
for Health Research (which funded the lab study) will step in.
"Nobody is going to make a billion dollars from this drug," Dr.
Michelakis said. "But maybe it will help a lot of people with cancer."