Is this the cure for cancer?

I haven't done any research on the issue, but felt that the articles
were worthwhile posting.

I have experienced watching loved ones die of cancer and often
wondered if the cure eludes us just because of the amount of money
that a cure would cost the research foundations. Meaning that the need
for research on cancer would end, once the cure is found.

Please note: I have just copied and pasted the articles, so if they
break up in posting and become hard to read - I apologize.


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Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice!

By: David McRaney
Posted: 1/23/07
EDITORS NOTE:

Since the original publication of this article we have been inundated
with responses from the public at all walks of life. It is important
to note that research is ongoing with DCA, and not everyone is
convinced it will turn out to be a miracle drug. There have been many
therapies that were promising in vitro and in animal models that did
not work for one reason or another in humans. To provide false hope is
not our intention.

There is a lot of information on DCA available on the web, and this
column is but one opinion on the topic. We hope you will do your own
research into the situation.

END NOTE

Scientists may have cured cancer last week.

Yep.

So, why haven't the media picked up on it?

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.

Doesn't this sound like the kind of news you see on the front page of
every paper?

The drug also has no patent, which means it could be produced for
bargain basement prices in comparison to what drug companies research
and develop.

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
upplemented with DCA.

Again, this seems like it should be at the top of the nightly news,
right?

Cancer cells don't use the little power stations found in most human
cells - the mitochondria. Instead, they use glycolysis, which is less
effective and more wasteful.
Doctors have long believed the reason for this is because the
mitochondria were damaged somehow. But, it turns out the mitochondria
were just dormant, and DCA starts them back up again.

The side effect of this is it also reactivates a process called
apoptosis. You see, mitochondria contain an all-too-important self-
destruct button that can't be pressed in cancer cells. Without it,
tumors grow larger as cells refuse to be extinguished. Fully
functioning mitochondria, thanks to DCA, can once again die.
With glycolysis turned off, the body produces less lactic acid, so the
bad tissue around cancer cells doesn't break down and seed new tumors.

Here's the big catch. Pharmaceutical companies probably won't invest
in research into DCA because they won't profit from it. It's easy to
make, unpatented and could be added to drinking water. Imagine,
Gatorade with cancer control.

So, the groundwork will have to be done at universities and
independently funded laboratories. But, how are they supposed to drum
up support if the media aren't even talking about it?

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.

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UPDATE March 15, 2007

The University of Alberta Discovery

DCA is an odourless, colourless, inexpensive, relatively non-toxic,
small molecule. And researchers at the University of Alberta believe
it may soon be used as an effective treatment for many forms of
cancer.

Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, a professor at the U of A Department of
Medicine, has shown that dichloroacetate (DCA) causes regression in
several cancers, including lung, breast, and brain tumors.
Michelakis and his colleagues, including post-doctoral fellow Dr.
Sebastian Bonnet, have published the results of their research in the
journal Cancer Cell.

Scientists and doctors have used DCA for decades to treat children
with inborn errors of metabolism due to mitochondrial diseases.
Mitochondria, the energy producing units in cells, have been connected
with cancer since the 1930s, when researchers first noticed that these
organelles dysfunction when cancer is present.

Until recently, researchers believed that cancer-affected mitochondria
are permanently damaged and that this damage is the result, not the
cause, of the cancer. But Michelakis, a cardiologist, questioned this
belief and began testing DCA, which activates a critical mitochondrial
enzyme, as a way to "revive" cancer-affected mitochondria.

The results astounded him.

Michelakis and his colleagues found that DCA normalized the
mitochondrial function in many cancers, showing that their function
was actively suppressed by the cancer but was not permanently damaged
by it.
More importantly, they found that the normalization of mitochondrial
function resulted in a significant decrease in tumor growth both in
test tubes and in animal models. Also, they noted that DCA, unlike
most currently used chemotherapies, did not have any effects on
normal, non-cancerous tissues.

"I think DCA can be selective for cancer because it attacks a
fundamental process in cancer development that is unique to cancer
cells," Michelakis said. "One of the really exciting things about this
compound is that it might be able to treat many different forms of
cancer".
Another encouraging thing about DCA is that, being so small, it is
easily absorbed in the body, and, after oral intake, it can reach
areas in the body that other drugs cannot, making it possible to treat
brain cancers, for example.

Also, because DCA has been used in both healthy people and sick
patients with mitochondrial diseases, researchers already know that it
is a relatively non-toxic molecule that can be immediately tested
patients with cancer.

"The results are intriguing because they point to the critical role
that mitochondria play: they impart a unique trait to cancer cells
that can be exploited for cancer therapy"

Dario Alteri Director University of Massachusetts Cancer Center

Investing in Research

The DCA compound is not patented and not owned by any pharmaceutical
company, and, therefore, would likely be an inexpensive drug to
administer, says Michelakis, the Canada Research Chair in Pulmonary
Hypertension and Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program with
Capital Health, one of Canada's largest health authorities.

However, as DCA is not patented, Michelakis is concerned that it may
be difficult to find funding from private investors to test DCA in
clinical trials. He is grateful for the support he has already
received from publicly funded agencies, such as the Canadian
Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), and he is hopeful such support
will continue and allow him to conduct clinical trials of DCA on
cancer patients.

Michelakis' research is currently funded by the CIHR, the Canada
Foundation for Innovation, the Canada Research Chairs program, and the
Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research.

"This preliminary research is encouraging and offers hope to thousands
of Canadians and all others around the world who are afflicted by
cancer, as it accelerates our understanding of and action around
targeted cancer treatments," said Dr. Philip Branton, Scientific
Director of the CIHR Institute of Cancer.

DCA and Cancer Patients

The University of Alberta's DCA Research Team is set to launch
clinical trials on humans in the spring of 2007 pending government
approval. Knowing that thousands of cancer patients die weekly while
waiting for a cure, Dr. Michelakis and his team are working at
accelerated speed, condensing research that usually takes years into
months. Fundraisers at the University of Alberta are determined to
raise the money to allow this next phase of research to begin. Once
Health Canada grants formal approval, the University of Alberta's
Research Team will begin testing DCA on patients living with cancer.
Results with regards to the safety and efficacy of treatment should be
known late this year.
"If there were a magic bullet, though, it might be something like
dichloroacetate, or DCA..."
Newsweek, January 23, 2007

________________________________________

UPDATE January 23, 2007 - Investigators at the University of Alberta
have recently reported that a drug previously used in humans for the
treatment of rare disorders of metabolism is also able to cause tumor
regression in a number of human cancers growing in animals. This drug,
dichloroacetate (DCA), appears to suppress the growth of cancer cells
without affecting normal cells, suggesting that it might not have the
dramatic side effects of standard chemotherapies.
At this point, the University of Alberta, the Alberta Cancer Board and
Capital Health do not condone or advise the use of dichloroacetate
(DCA) in human beings for the treatment of cancer since no human
beings have gone through clinical trials using DCA to treat cancer.
However, the University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board are
committed to performing clinical trials in the immediate future in
consultation with regulatory agencies such as Health Canada. We
believe that because DCA has been used on human beings in Phase 1 and
Phase 2 trials of metabolic diseases, the cancer clinical trials
timeline for our research will be much shorter than usual.

****************************************************

Donations can be mailed or dropped off at:

Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry Room 2J1
Walter C Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Canada T6G 2R7

Please note on your cheques that you would like your donations to
support Dr. Michelakis' cancer research.

If you would like to speak to someone about making a gift please
contact:

Holli Bjerland, Sr. Development Officer
University of Alberta, Department of Medicine
2F1.26 Walter C Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre
Edmonton, AB CANADA T5G 2R7
Fax: (780) 407-3340
E-mail: holli.bjerland@xxxxxxxxxxx

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