Possible Cancer Cure Found: $2 a Dose!

I just found this through Fark.com and figured it was worth a post here. Apparently researchers and scientist at the University of Alberta have found what seems to be a cheap cure for cancer called "Dichloroacetate".

Here's the deal. Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada found a cheap and easy to produce drug that kills almost all cancers. The drug is dichloroacetate, and since it is already used to treat metabolic disorders, we know it should be no problem to use it for other purposes.
*snip*
Scientists tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body where it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but left healthy cells alone. Rats plump with tumors shrank when they were fed water supplemented with DCA.

The most important aspect of this finding is that since you apparently can not patent DCA it can be offered for as cheap as $2 a dose.

I've heard of other cancer cures such as Extract of Wormwood, which attacks iron rich cells, and they always seem to end with a statement about how the cure would be picked up if it was profitable. Perhaps the only cures for cancer are incredibly cheap?

The article ends with this:

All I can do is write this and hope Google News picks it up. In the meantime, tell everyone you know and do your own research.

Sounds fair, what do you guys think?

Original Article

Edit: to add link

[edit on 31-1-2007 by Shadowflux]

[edit on 31-1-2007 by Shadowflux]

Mod Edit: External Source Tags – Please Review This Link.

[edit on 31/1/2007 by Mirthful Me]

I think its going to annoy the Big Pharmaceutical companies.

$2 a dose wheres the profit in that.

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Apparently there's a lot of articles on this DCA thing, I don't know why Fark.com only linked to such a poor quality article. Here are some more:

DCA attacks a unique feature of cancer cells: the fact that they make their energy throughout the main body of the cell, rather than in distinct organelles called mitochondria. This process, called glycolysis, is inefficient and uses up vast amounts of sugar.
Until now it had been assumed that cancer cells used glycolysis because their mitochondria were irreparably damaged. However, Michelakis’s experiments prove this is not the case, because DCA reawakened the mitochondria in cancer cells. The cells then withered and died (Cancer Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2006.10.020).

Article

In findings that "astounded" the researchers, the molecule known as DCA was shown to shrink lung, breast and brain tumours in both animal and human tissue experiments.

Article

There seems to be a whole lot of info on this, here's a Google search:
Google Search

Mod Edit: External Source Tags – Please Review This Link.


[edit on 31/1/2007 by Mirthful Me]

Originally posted by carslake


I think its going to annoy the Big Pharmaceutical companies.

$2 a dose wheres the profit in that.

.

There is no profit in that, and apparently you can't even patent this. Im no scientist so I can't say for sure whether or not DCA is the same as extract of wormwood but wormwood an be grown in you back yard and is simply injected directly into the cancerous cells.

BTW Wormwood is the active ingredient in Absinthe, the favorite drink of many a poet and artist.

All I can say is that if ever I develop cancer I would be sure to take alternative cures as the current "treatments" are so horrifying I would rather die of cancer.

Wikipedia says it is known to cause cancer in the State of California...

What about the rest of the world?...JK

I am quite sure that most things now seen as threats to humans, and we are required to pump billions of $ into a cure, have simple cures that seem to get overlooked.

Thanks for the heads up.

I watched a doc. on discovery about people curing cancer by merely exercising their will power. They refused to be overcome by their medical diagnosis's of a short time left and start making funeral arangements.

Well, I don't know about using will power or anything like that but it seems this DCA is not some "New Age Alternative Healing" kind of cure. It's actually being researched by scientists.

I know there are hundreds of "New Age guru" types trying to sell expensive cures to desperate and sick people but this doesn't seem to be one of those cures. If it were I wouldn't have bothered to post it here as I don't buy into any of that stuff.

I think it's important to make the distinction between glass pyramid hats and an actual treatment being researched by scientists at the University of Alberta.

I posted the link to this article about a week ago. It is true no one will patent it, so get after the government to look into it!

Link.

Mod Edit: Truncated Link Of Great Length.

[edit on 31/1/2007 by Mirthful Me]

Glycolysis is constantly taking place in cells. It also generates very little ATP (energy, basically). If there is oxygen to use, it goes through the Krebbs Cycle, and then to the mitochondria for aerobic respiration (electron transport chain). If there is no oxygen, it undergoes lactic acid fermentation after glycolysis instead, which is less efficient and generates (gasp) lactic acid as a byproduct.

So they got that part wrong. But I do think mitochondria breaks down in cancer cells.

I was suspicous of it until I found some articles in more reputable places.

They're doing clinical trials, or planning them. Until those are done, I don't think I'd loudly say that cancer has been cured. There are lots of things that cure cancers in petri dishes that do NOT work in human bodies.

Let's hope they move ahead quickly. The Canadian medical system is different than that of the US. I'm not sure how they get drugs approved for treatment.

Had I not had access to the VA hospital, I would never have been able to afford my cancer treatment. I was given three different type of chemo every three weeks and one treatment of one of the chemicals the week after my batch dose. The treatment was: First week three chemo, second week one chemo third week off. This was for a total of six full treatments. The cost for six bags each of the two chemicals and twelve bags of the third chemical plus the tests, surguries, radiation, follow ups, and hospital stays would have run into the millions had I utilized a private hospital rather than the VA. Our medical cost have sky rocketed out of control.

Indellkoffer said:

Let's hope they move ahead quickly. The Canadian medical system is different than that of the US. I'm not sure how they get drugs approved for treatment.

I think the Canadian medicare system refuses to shell out for overly expensive drugs in favour of cheaper, public system friendly priced ones. I read that in the newspaper about some people being denied a more expensive drug.

There would therefore, I assume more research towards cheaper and easier to get materials that won't burden the system as much.

Dark Elf: We're all glad you pulled through

I'm still hoping that the final tests turn out well. I've read of other treatments that don't work as well in the human body. However, I've always thought the idea of bombarding the body to the point of radiation poisoning to be somewhat....barbaric in approach.

We should all keep our fingers crossed on this one as there is someone I know who has metastatic cancer and needs all our prayers.

This seems to be a legitimate theory and there is real research being put into this. If it does turn out to work we should not let this get buried by the medical industry. I wanted to get the word out, I'll keep my eye on this story to see if there're any more developments.

Isn't Dichloroacetate some sort of food additive, or something put in something else?
Just seems I've heard or read that chemical on a label or something?

Wiki doesn't say.
en.wikipedia.org...

Wow, not only is this a possible cancer treatment, it was developed in my hometown, at the university where I got my degree! I'll have to ask my buddy in the medical program here what he knows about this. It might be a few weeks before I do, since he's doing a medical rotation in a rural community, so he won't be around for awhile, and I forget when he's getting back.

Does this miracle substance occur naturally in any foods, plants? How was it determined that it cost $2.00/dose? How many doses would be needed to eradicate a cancerous growth? I saw this substance advertised in some junk circular that came through the mail day before yesterday but it was quite a bit more expensive than $2.00. Think I still have it around here but other than giving the usual 50 "testimonials from satisfied customers" it didn't really say how it worked.

I've read about this in a couple of places and it sounds pretty interesting. Here is a link to New Scientist which has a story on it.

The patent issue is not that it can't be patented but rather that the patent for the drug has expired so now it can be produced by anybody rather than by the patent holder at an inflated price.

New Scientist

Well, I talked to my buddy in the medical program at the University of Alberta (turns out I misunderstood, and he isn't leaving for his rotation for a few weeks yet) and he had no idea what I was talking about, although I was admittedly a bit vague. He said there are many professors here doing research on cancer treatments, so it's possible he hasn't seen everything that they are doing, yet. The link G_man posted (unfortunately after I'd talked to my friend :p) has the name of the doctor and a few other things I can drop next time I run into him, and hopefully he will know what I'm talking about, then.

Originally posted by G_man
I've read about this in a couple of places and it sounds pretty interesting. Here is a link to New Scientist which has a story on it.

The patent issue is not that it can't be patented but rather that the patent for the drug has expired so now it can be produced by anybody rather than by the patent holder at an inflated price.

New Scientist

Interesting article and the side effects mentioned are very low compared to chemo. Whew. Still in my research I am trying to figure out what exactly IS DCA.

I'm with you guys on this, I first saw the headline and thought "Great, another pseudo science 'alternative' cancer cure"

But apparently I was wrong, as this is being researched by real scientists. I'm still hoping it works, I don't think we understand cancer at all as well as we say we do. Since we don't understand it we decide to just attack the entire body. It's like burning down the entire building to get the rats out.

I'll keep checking for updates and post 'em here when I find them. If anyone else finds any more info feel free to post it here as well.

MONEY,MONEY,MONEY! I am so sick of these drug companies. I lost both my parents before I was 22 to all there slash, burn & dope cures for cancer.If I had known then what I know now about alternative therapies... maybe I would have had more time with them.This is so disgusting.The fact that I live in Canada does not make it any better.This will probably, unfortunately never be used to help cancer patients, as we all know that cancer is not a disease it is a business.