Efficacy

Cancer is in the news again today. "Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., announced today that his wife's cancer has returned, but that his presidential campaign will go on." Mrs. Edwards' cancer is apparently a metastasis of her breast cancer, thought effectively treated in 2004 with radiation and chemotherapy. And the metastasis site is now within bone, which makes it difficult to treat: The bone is one of the most common places where breast cancer spreads, and once it does so it is not considered curable.

When it comes to cancer, the present day "standard of care" as it's called - radiation treatments and chemotherapy - is brutal on the body and bleak in long-term prognosis. Cancers are very rarely referred to "cured" but instead are said to be in remission. The good news is that the scope and quality of cancer fighting research is truly impressive in this nascent age of genetic science.

The bad news is that no new treatments have thus far been approved by regulatory bodies which do much more than to extend a patient's life by a few months or years. What's more, the cutting edge pharmaceuticals being developed are monstrously expensive - on the order of $10,000 per week with treatments required for life in some cases.

But in February 2007 something different came to light. A biomedical researcher at the University of Alberta, Canada, Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, published a research paper in the journal 'Cancer Cell' that showed "Cancer Mitochondria Are Hyperpolarized and Have Suppressed Oxidative Metabolism, Both of which Are Reversed by DCA."

"DCA" or dichloroacetate, is a simple compound that has apparently been approved for treatment of certain rare metabolic disorders in children. It is also a long-standing compound and can't be patented. Nonetheless, unless Dr. Michelakis' team's discovery is another cold fusion debacle, it could be a safe and powerful new treatment for this devastating disease. If true, this could also be an incredible threat to the big business of cancer cures.

But the more pressing concern is what is happening with DCA today among current cancer patients, some of whom are considered "terminal." They are treating themselves - illegally - with this unproven compound.

Desperate cancer patients are self-medicating with a cheap compound that has yet to be tested in humans, despite dire warnings of potential toxic poisonings.

Predictably, the medical establishment and government regulatory bodies reactions range from extreme caution to total fear of the unknown. But for someone with no hope left, what's to lose?

Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, the cardiologist whose academic paper sparked the worldwide fervour, said people shouldn't take DCA until clinical trials prove it is safe on humans and actually shrinks tumours as it did in rats.

In clinical trials to see how DCA works in metabolic disorders, children took the drug and showed no signs of toxic poisoning. But when similar trials were done on adults, most had to discontinue using it, since they developed severe peripheral neuropathy, Michelakis said.

The damage to the peripheral nerves caused imbalance and finger numbness. Michelakis said if people take DCA along with other cancer treatments, the consequences could be lethal.

Even for those who say they have only six months to live and nothing to lose, Michelakis said it's not worth it. "You can die earlier and in much worse shape," he said.

Jim Tassano, a biologist in Sonora, Calif., and a University of California chemist have begun making DCA and selling it over the Internet. "Are there side effects?" Tassano said. "Absolutely, but compare that to radiation."

This is a complicated moral situation, one on which I've had difficulty forming an opinion. I think though my attitude is best expressed by an opinion on "thedcasite.com" which asks, "Is DCA worth trying?"

We absolutely think so..

The risks of a DCA-based therapy are trivial compared to those of accepted cancer therapy. Isn't radiation bad for you? Doesn't radiation cause cancer? What does a man feel like after he loses sexual function when a doctor cuts the nerve near his prostate gland? How does a women feel after having her breasts removed? Have you ever seen someone after a chemo treatment so sick they cannot get out of bed for days? What is like to be told that there is nothing that can be done for you, to just go home and die? Why is all that okay? Why would anyone opt for the cutting, burning and poisoning of their bodies when they could drink a tiny amount of sodium dichloroacetate every day for a few months, live a totally normal life and pay only a few hundred dollars? What is there to lose? A reversible neropathy? A risk of cancer that is probably vastly less than the risk radiation therapy places upon you?

That is the allure, the great hope that DCA gives us.

There is a problem, and it is not DCA.

Pharmaceuticals Posted by JohnGalt at March 22, 2007 2:53 PM