Thursday, May 13, 2010

DCA – Our Best Shot at Cancer?

Dichloroacetate or DCA is an inexpensive drug already being used to treat other conditions, is giving new hope to cancer patients. It works by not killing off cancer cells, but by simply reprogramming them. It shrinks the tumors until they are gone by altering a cancer cell's metabolism. I believe this is the real deal here for cancer treatment.

At the University of Alberta here in Edmonton after two years of lab work, the researchers conducted a small clinical DCA trial consisting of five patients with a deadly aggressive type of brain tumor called Glioblastoma. This cancer kills most patients within 15 months of their diagnosis. After 18 months on DCA, four patients are still living and one patient died three months into the study. It appears that this drug needs some time to get going. http://www.dca.med.ualberta.ca/Home/Updates/2010-05-12_Update.cfm

The kicker here is that this drug can’t be patented, it’s decades old. No drug company wants to fund the research necessary to bring this drug to the approval stage and then on to regular cancer treatment. The team at the University of Alberta needs your money to keep going.

Please donate to help Dr. Michelakis and his research team at the University of Alberta put their research into high gear. The donation link: http://www.dca.med.ualberta.ca/Home/Donations/

2 comments:

l'optimiste said...

amazing. thanks for that post!

Sue in Italia/In the Land Of Cancer said...

Interesting. It looks like they are concentrating on brain tumors at this point.
There is a antidiabetic drug, Metformin, that lowers the amount of glucose in tumor cells, which have higher glucose needs than normal cells. This also is experimental.
I am glad you got to see The Lion King. Sounds like you had a great trip.