Is the cure to cancer finally out?
February 4th, 2007 by ShikhaNew Scientist magazine recenty reported about experiments using a little known compound called Dichloroacetate (a.k.a. DCA) conducted by University of Alberta and its success in killing breast, brain and lung cancer cells.
So is this molecule the cure to cancer?
The molecule has been instrumental in killing cancer cells but for it to be deemed as the cure for cancer more extensive trials and scientific peer reviews need to be conducted.
What probably triggered a furore among bloggers is the following paragraph from the article:
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.
The reaction to this article ranged from acknowledging potential of DCA to conspiracy theories.
I recommend this article on ScienceBlogs which gives a 360 degree perspective of the whole debate.
Many of you may have got your hopes high and might be tempted to do self-trials of DCA, I know how you feel and how desperation drives in these idea.. a humble request to you all to not give in to those thoughts. Hard as it is, you must wait for more thorough conclusions to come out before taking any step.
Posted in Cancer Cure | | Similar Topics: Chat for Charity|Is there any drugless approach to combat the side effects of chemotherapy?|
February 21st, 2007 at 12:50 am
A great many thanks for recommending our discussion of the topic. I think I speak for all cancer researchers when I say that I hope DCA pans out as well in humans as it did in animals. However, we know that many of these agents don’t perform well in people. Beware of marketers trying to make a buck off of this hype but consider enrolling in the DCA clinical trials that are likely to follow from this work. Thanks again. Abel