What are your thought on DCA?

Hindsfeet

Read this article...not sure what to think? Does anyone know anything about it or anyone who has tried it? Your thoughts ...

Home |Health | News

Cheap, 'safe' drug kills most cancers

• Updated 16:37 12 December 2007 by Andy Coghlan

New Scientist has received an unprecedented amount of interest in this story from readers. If you would like up-to-date information on any plans for clinical trials of DCA in patients with cancer, or would like to donate towards a fund for such trials, please visit the site set up by the University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board. We will also follow events closely and will report any progress as it happens.

It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their "immortality". The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe.

It also has no patent, meaning it could be manufactured for a fraction of the cost of newly developed drugs.

Evangelos Michelakis of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and his colleagues tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body and found that it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but not healthy cells. Tumours in rats deliberately infected with human cancer also shrank drastically when they were fed DCA-laced water for several weeks.

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).

Michelakis suggests that the switch to glycolysis as an energy source occurs when cells in the middle of an abnormal but benign lump don't get enough oxygen for their mitochondria to work properly (see diagram). In order to survive, they switch off their mitochondria and start producing energy through glycolysis.

Crucially, though, mitochondria do another job in cells: they activate apoptosis, the process by which abnormal cells self-destruct. When cells switch mitochondria off, they become "immortal", outliving other cells in the tumour and so becoming dominant. Once reawakened by DCA, mitochondria reactivate apoptosis and order the abnormal cells to die.

"The results are intriguing because they point to a critical role that mitochondria play:

they impart a unique trait to cancer cells that can be exploited for cancer therapy," says Dario Altieri, director of the University of Massachusetts Cancer Center in Worcester.

The phenomenon might also explain how secondary cancers form. Glycolysis generates lactic acid, which can break down the collagen matrix holding cells together. This means abnormal cells can be released and float to other parts of the body, where they seed new tumours.

DCA can cause pain, numbness and gait disturbances in some patients, but this may be a price worth paying if it turns out to be effective against all cancers. The next step is to run clinical trials of DCA in people with cancer. These may have to be funded by charities, universities and governments: pharmaceutical companies are unlikely to pay because they can't make money on unpatented medicines. The pay-off is that if DCA does work, it will be easy to manufacture and dirt cheap.

Paul Clarke, a cancer cell biologist at the University of Dundee in the UK, says the findings challenge the current assumption that mutations, not metabolism, spark off cancers. "The question is: which comes first?" he says.

OUTRAGE IN BELGIUM! (25 Oct. 2008)

After the news story in the Belgium press of two terminally ill cancer patients who used DCA and are now on the road to recovery, the Belgium people are asking questions. "It has brought a lot commotion in Belgium. All the people are wondering why they haven't heard from DCA any sooner! And they wonder why it isn't recognized yet as an official medicine for cancer! They are shocked!" (additional Belgium link) (Google-translated English versions 1, 2)

More Dutch DCA + cancer articles:
http://galgangcarcinoom.blogspot.com/2008/10/vrijdag-24-oktober-donderdag-kreeg-papa.html(English translation) This article discusses the press coverage of DCA

http://uwchemo.nl/alternatieve-geneeskunde/dca-of-dichloorazijnzuur-geneest-kanker/
(English translation) This doctor says he was cured of prostate cancer for 35 Euros

hollyann

If it's too good to be true it probably isn't........Snakeoil comes to mind......I would seriously love to meet these patients who have been "cured"......Just my humble opinion, barry.....I know we all would love to have a cure for this nasty disease.....I myself hope a cure is found within my daughter's lifetime but I highly doubt it.......I have heard of so many "cures" for cancer in my lifetime it makes me sick....All those people who tried them and died just saddens me......Those people who claim to have the cure are such charletans.....I wish there were laws against them but what can you do?.....I wish you well, barry.....I wish you all you need for the day and I wish you peace.......Most of all I wish for a REAL cure for all of us.......But first we must find the CAUSE then a cure will be found......There are so many different forms of breast cancer that it is hard to pinpoint any one cause.......I pray for a a reason and a cure soon.........

crazy4carrots

Just to put some perspective on this story:  Cancer Cell is a highly respected scientific journal, and the University of Alberta has a long and distinguished history of scientific research.  In fact, scientists at U of A have won international renown for their work in diabetes.

I'm sure if you want more information, you can email Dr. Michelakis at U of A to find out how his studies are advancing, and if he has received funding for clinical trials.

Linda

vivo

Dr Michelakis is from Greece. In fact from Crete. I have seen his mother in tv telling that people come from other places to help them get in touch with Dr. She was so sweet lady.

I have to add that Dr Michelakis doesn't say that he has the magic weapon to destroy every cancer in ones body but he says that this is the CHEAPEST and non profit drug ever found (no personal profits) and it is very affective in cancer tumours with a persentage I cannot remember right now (higher than chemos and safe). I have never seen him claiming it is very easy to cure all cancers.

Hindsfeet

vivo...thanks. I was hoping to hear from someone who knew more about Dr. Michelakis. Is there away to purchase the med's in U.S. or from Greece? At this point I don't need it, but if it came to the point where I did, I would be open to try something new...that is if it didn't have side affects. If I had to...I would try anything that didn't have side affects. What might work for one person, might not work for another. Just hope someone out there finds something that really works!

Rosemary44

This story appeared a couple of years ago.  At the time I was so enthused I donated a few bucks to U of A.  I wanted to see this get a move on.  They thanked me for my donation and that was that.  I'm not saying it isn't real.  I'm saying it seems to be moving at a snails pace, if at all.

That's all I know.  The email they sent me was dated 2-1-07

BMD

I have a close friend who was Stage IV Lymphoma. You can read his story on the DCA website. When his cancer came back for a 2nd time after chemo he went to using DCA. He has been NED for several months and has more energy in one hour than I can muster up in a week. I don't think it has been widely used for bc and I do not take it. I just know what I have seen happen to him. Look up Timothy's story on their site.

graceths

Dear all

Please see the earlier post here on DCA:-

 http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/79/topic/724545?page=2#post_1133547

Hope it helps.

vivo

http://www.depmed.ualberta.ca/dca/

See the above link. It is the newest letter of Dr Michelakis on 2 Octomber 2008. The fact is that I didn't know DCA has already been used in patients! I think it is a step. I have to say that the thing that made me a fun of Dr is his insistance not to give DCA to people before it is examed through the medical way. I think he is a great scientist who works like a real doctor and not a charlatan. In an interview he said that there is a great responsibility of society to search for the effectiveness or not of DCA because there are a lot of desperate people trying this drug without medical care. He gets emails asking him to tell them the appropriate dosage for "dogs" that weight 70 kilos or more! Meaning that the patients are not dogs but humans. I wish all these to end someday and at least find out the truth about DCA.

gscott

any updates on people using this?