Dichloroacetate (DCA) May be Used For Curing Cancer
On 20th April 2008, U.K government warned the cancer sufferers about the unproven cure that is being sold in the Internet. According to them the use of these drugs could wreck the remaining months of their life. On the other hand some people including researchers are hoping that this could be a new cure for cancer.
The controversy centres on a drug called DCA (dichloroacetate), a chemical that is promoted and hyped across the world as a cure of cancer . Although it has been only tested on rats.
It has been seen that most of the patients taking this drug are from Canada, US and some have made the trip from the UK.
DCA is a cheap off patent chemical which was the subject of various large trials for different diseases dating back around 20 years. It comes back at prominence after research on early animal laboratory work by tow scientists in Canada and was published in the Cancer Cell journal in January last year.
Many scientists are working on the effect of DCA on cancerous cells. One of the scientists researching on DCA’s effect on cancerous cells has appealed “The concern about this drug is that at this stage it is given to people who are very sick. If the drug is unsupervised, it can kill them,” said Dr Micheal, a professor at the University of Alberta who carried out tests in animal brain, lung and breast tumours and is now moving into human trials.
Other scientist, Michelakis is moving as fast as he can into human clinical trials that will start to give some real answers. “The people who decide to sell this are like drug dealers. They are targeting the most vulnerable people you can imagine,” he said.
Gibson said he was very concerned that patients were being given false advice and erroneous information about drugs that had not been tested on humans. “I am calling for these websites to be researched by the Department of Health and closed down instantly. Moreover he wanted to start a campaign to fetch the message out to the people that these sites are no good. If it requires then possible pressure will be given to close these sites.”
But they also know that this is very difficult thing to do, as people when get desperate they will always turn to the sites like these.
According to the US authorities they have attempted to stop this drug selling, but The Guardian was easily able to obtain a tub of the powdered chemical, with the recommendation to try it with caffeine from Strong tea and coffee.
Moreover the Department of Health said that the responsibility for websites, selling medicines are rested with the Medicines and Health care Regulatory authority (MHRA) . The MHRA also said that websites operating illegally in the UK has been closed down and it is making efforts to let the people know the danger of buying medicines through the web.
On the other side, Jim Tassano, who runs a pest control business in California, began to manufacture and sell DCA to all corners on a website. He says that he only wants to help people who have run out of options. He believes that with terminal cancer they should be allowed to take whatever risks they want to take. Whereas, most of the doctors think that patients should take calculated risks only within clinical trials, so that they can be properly looked after, if things go wrong.
“We haven’t seen it cure anyone. It has prolonged life and given a better quality of life,” said Dr Humaira Khan. On the other hand she admits that “There’s also the psychological aspect: the family feels they are doing something.”
Dr Evangelos Michelakis and his colleague Dr Sebestian Bonnet who are working on the DCA says that, it restores the mitochondrial function, responsible for energy production, in cells damaged by cancers, allowing them to self-destruct and decrease tumour growth. If they are right, then they might have hit on a new approach to cancer treatment.
Source: The Guardian
