Posted on 04/23/2007 11:21:56 AM PDT by Rennes Templar
March 15, 2007 The University of Alberta
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.
Is that what Paul Harvey was talking about this morning, when he said the treatment should be available in three years?
Interesting. Bump for later read to hubby.
Excellent. Fantastic news.
OOps. That won’t get much air time here. Too many pharmaceutical companies and doctors with too much to lose.
Apparently the DCA cannot be patented, and so they are having trouble coming up with funding for the clinical trials.
Don’t know but it sure sounds promising. I would think the key factor in testing will be any toxic effects. Of course conventional therapies are so toxic now. But chlorine compounds are generally not tolerated well by the body.
God Speed, Dr. Evangelos Michelakis! Please!...........
Exactly. But if it works it will be hard to stop even by entrenched medicine.
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
....or HIGH VELOCITY.............
This is absolute bullshit! The Canadian Cancer Society is not a drug company! It has many millions of dollars as well as other related charities. They can afford to fund the clinical trials.
I did not pull that statement out of my ear. If you would bother to do a search, you would find several writers who know about this situation, not me. No need to be vulgar and disrespectful, Bill.
Please save the moonbattery for DU. Certainly the drug companies won’t finance trials as there is no return. They will not, however, try to block it. There are plenty of other health issues to for them to research and make money from creating treatments.
There are plenty of cancer research non profits out there to foot the bill. That’s why these groups were created - right?
Dear Bill, when you have calmed down and recovered yourself, read:
http://scienceblogs.com/terrasig/2007/04/perversion_of_good_science.php
http://www.ganderbeacon.ca/index.cfm?iid=2443&sid=20630
Also, see Canadian quilters raise money for cancer treatment..
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