Long-used drug shows new promise for cancer

[kristopher]

I don't usually get excited about preliminary findings like this but for some reason this one has my antenna quivering.

Therapy prescribed for metabolic disorder now found to shrink tumours in lab rats

ANDRÉ PICARD
PUBLIC HEALTH REPORTER; With reports from Avis Favaro and Elizabeth St. Philip, CTV News

Imagine, if you will, a drug that shrinks cancer cells and can even make tumours disappear. A couple of spoonfuls a day of powder in a glass of water is all you need.
There are no nasty side effects like nausea and hair loss, and no damage to internal organs such as with traditional chemotherapy. And it costs only about $2 a dose.
Too good to be true?
Not according to a Canadian researcher who stumbled upon the potentially new anti-cancer agent called dichloroacetate, or DCA, a drug long used to treat rare metabolic disorders.
"This is one of the most exciting results I've ever had," said Evangelos Michelakis, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
"But I can't be overenthusiastic until it works in a human being."
In a paper published in today's edition of the medical journal Cancer Cell, Dr. Michelakis and a group of researchers from the U of A and the University of Ottawa, report on how they were able to use DCA to shrink human lung-, breast- and brain-cancer tumours in both lab rats and in a test tube.
While this type of research in laboratory animals does not generally generate a lot of enthusiasm, in this case the findings are creating a stir because DCA has actually been used safely in humans for decades -- in treating rare inherited metabolic disorders such as lactic acidosis, not cancer.
"One of the big concerns about drugs is that they can harm people but we already know this drug is safe. It doesn't even affect normal cells," Dr. Michelakis said....
<snip>
The research challenges one of the fundamental premises of cancer biology, that mitochondria (the energy producing units of cells) are permanently damaged by cancer.
What Dr. Michelakis and his team found is that while mitochondrial function is suppressed, it can be revived with DCA, which makes the cancer cells susceptible to dying. (Most cancers become resistant to standard chemotherapy by suppressing mitochondrial function.)
In other words, the drug works by revving up the engines of normal cells, allowing them to work normally and driving cancer cells to commit suicide.
"This is the holy grail of cancer therapeutics -- how to kill the cancer cells and spare normal cells," Dr. Michelakis said...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070117.HCANCER17/TPStory/?query=cancer

The good doctor's website. Anyone have an idea where he could get the money for trials? With no profits at stake, big pharma isn't interested.
http://www.ualberta.ca/PERINATAL/Investigators/michelakis.htm

[WinstonSmith4740]

1. If big pharma would only ignore it,

we'd be ahead of the game. Instead, along with the FDA, they will do their damnest to bury it. If they can't patent it, therefore allowing them to totally control the market for whatever number of years they're allowed to, they don't want it. I've been in the vitamin business for years, and the main reason certain claims can't be made is that it's impossible to afford all the testing necessary if you can't "corner the market" as it were. The FDA will go along...there's been a revolving door for executives between the FDA and big pharma for years. They'll declare it "untested" and all evidence will be considered anecdotal. It doesn't matter if it's been used for years for another purpose, it would have to go through all the years of bullshit for THIS purpose. And when you're talking about something this cheap and easily available, they'll work overtime to kill it. Cancer treatment medication is HUGE business.

Hopefully, some branch of the Canadian government will step in and fund the research necessary. I'd like to think our good friends to the north have not been totally corrupted by our "profits first, screw the people" corporate government down here.

[qanda]

6. What you say is so sad

But so true. If only people came first, we would probably have cures for a lot of diseases.

[illinoisprogressive]

2. Unfortunately, in the US the drug will go from 2.00 to 2,000.00

[I_Make_Mistakes]

3. Holy Crap! What's up with Canada? Diabetes break thru and

now this! I can see it now, the Mexicans migrate to the US and the Americans migrate to Canada! It's the new outsourcing CITIZENS!

I really mean this. If the diabetes thing works out and this, what researcher wouldn't want to move there? I wonder what their position is on embryonic stem cells.

Great news and I hope this medication proves to be another tool in the fight on cancer.

[pecwae]

4. Thanks for the link.

This goes along with the news I read on clinical trials of IV vitamin C as an anti-cancer agent. IV C has been used in alternative settings, but now NCI has funded these new studies. I don't have metastatic disease that I know of, but would be willing to try both the drug in the OP and IV C to prevent mets from the cancer I've already had to deal with.

[MGD]

5. We have been researching the mitochondrial link to cancer and apoptosis for some time now it appears

And this article from molecular cancer, written in 2002, seems to strongly support the findings of Evangelos Michelakis: http://www.molecular-cancer.com/content/1/1/9

After reading and comparing both articles, I'm convinced that Michelakis isn't just another William Lane trying to peddle shark cartilage to desperate cancer patients. Clearly this warrants further investigation on my part as I have a loved one receiving heavy duty chemotherapy. I would hope big pharmacy sees it the same way but my guess is, they are already working on patentable drugs that do similar things and will pursue those for obvious reasons.

[anotherdrew]

7. so... this is great news! I wonder if it'll be reported in the US media?

You'd think this would be a BFD

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10971-cheap-safe-drug-kills-most-cancers.html

DCA = Dichloroacetic acid
more of a simple chemical then a fancy 'drug' really, CHCl2COOH

There's no way they'll drive up the price on this, it's too easy to make.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichloroacetic_acid