Guest Post by Edger
posted by The Sailor @ 1:59 PM PermalinkMisplaced Priorities
Since the story of a cheap safe cancer cure first broke on Jan 23 in NewScientistdotCom, virtually NO US mainstream media has picked up on and reported the story. Google news searchs on "dichloroacetate" now produce only 59 hits. Compare that to 14,289 news search hits on "al-qaeda", for a bit of perspective. Cancer is a killer disease affecting millions of people every year, so the ignoring of this story cannot be due to any "lack of interest".It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their "immortality". The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe.Where are the priorities? Well, one of the 59 news search results is a short, pointed piece from TopCancerNewsdotCom that explains it in no uncertain terms:
It also has no patent, meaning it could be manufactured for a fraction of the cost of newly developed drugs.
Evangelos Michelakis of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and his colleagues tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body and found that it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but not healthy cells.
One of the fundamental premises of cancer biology is that mitochondria -- the energy producing units of cells -- are permanently damaged by cancer. What DCA does is revive the mitochondrial function, encouraging the death of cancer cells.AxisOfLogic takes the explanation a step further towards the real truth behind this, in their Feb 02/07 article "The Real Cancer":
The overwhelming hope is that DCA will move right to human testing. But the overwhelming fear is that it will not -- because of economic reasons. There is no longer a patent on DCA so it is not owned by any one company. With little chance of one group making a large profit, there may be no incentive for pharmaceutical companies to invest in research.
Sadly, this drug -- that appears to work remarkably well -- may never benefit cancer patients. All because no one stands to make billions of dollars from it.
DCA is not a new drug. It has been used for years to treat michondrial disease. It is cheap and has limited side effects. Scientists decided to try it on cancer cells because it affects the metabolism of cells, the way they use energy. This is a different approach than the chemotherapy drugs now in use, which are toxic and kill off both cancerous and normal cells.This story should give us a pretty clear indication of what kinds of results to expect in the fight against another looming killer, Global Climate Change.
What has scientists especially excited is that DCA has the potential of working against all types of cancers, including secondary cancers caused when cells break off and migrate to other parts of the body.
So what's the hitch?
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The problem with the whole medical industry is that it's not an industry to promote health, it's an industry to promote profits. In fact, the more sick people there are, the more money there is to be made. Pharmaceuticals make up one of the most profitable industries in this country, raking in hundreds of billions every year.
In the U.S., where the medical industry is the most advanced technologically, it's also the most expensive and the least efficient when the cost is measured against the general health of the people. That's why 47 million people here have no health coverage.
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But issues like cancer and the messed-up environment, which can affect anyone, should make it clearer than ever that all humanity will benefit mightily when the parasitic billionaire class that currently stifles true progress is toppled from its seat of power.
It's apparent that as a society we would rather be lied to and spun into spending hundreds of billions of dollars on chasing fantasies of ghosts and boogeymen, even at the cost of watching ourselves and our families and our children be systematically poisoned by pollution that threatens to upset the planetary environment, and at the cost of watching them die in agony from one of the most horrible diseases known.
The US has a Drug Lobby Second to None. No other industry has spent more money to sway public policy than the pharmaceutical industry: "Its lobbying operation, on which it reports spending more than $675 million, is the biggest in the nation."
As a race of beings we certainly have some serious issues..... inside us. One of which is that we are incredibly willing to allow ourselves to be spun. Another is our unbelievable willingness to sit back and just take it, over and over and over, even when we know it is being done.
If we are willing to treat ourselves and our families this way, what kind of response should we expect from the rest of the world when America pre-emptively invades and kills them to bring them the wonders of western civilization?
7 Comments:
LATEST DCA RESEARCH INFORMATION
At this point, the University of Alberta, the Alberta Cancer Board and Capital Health do not condone or advise the use of dichloroacetate (DCA) in human beings for the treatment of cancer since no human beings have gone through clinical trials using DCA to treat cancer. However, the University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board are committed to performing clinical trials in the immediate future in consultation with regulatory agencies such as Health Canada. We believe that because DCA has been used on human beings in Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials of metabolic diseases, the cancer clinical trials timeline for our research will be much shorter than usual.
This website will be updated frequently to reflect progress in our efforts.
I posted on this topic as well. While I believe that big pharma is evil enough to thwart a cheap cure for cancer, the former-cancer researcher in me has a wait-and-see attitude abou it all.
http://vidiotspeak.blogspot.com/2007/01/blogabaloo.html
Yes, I saw and read your post on it yesterday, after I had sent this one to Sailor asking if he'd like to post it.
I agree with your wait and see caution. Dichloroacetate has some potential side effects that concern me and probably make it not very nice stuff to ingest, though perhaps not nearly as toxic as currently used chemo drugs.
I'd like to see clinical trials as soon as possible though because of that difference an the fact that it is now used successfully for some metabolic disorders.
In general my own attitude towards dealing with cancer is to try to avoid contracting it - I think prevention is the best medicine in most cases, and I admit to a strong enough bias against the medical and pharmaceutical industries that I do my own health research and do not use precription medicines if I can avoid them, and as much as possible treat myself for any conditions I develop.
Something will get us all eventually though.
If you like spicy foods, you may not only be at less risk of developing cancer, you might be inadvertently curing it if it does develop.
Capsaicin, the spicy active ingredient in chili peppers, apparently triggers the same mitochondrial re-activation effect on cancer cells that DCA does:
"The tests on cultures of human lung and pancreatic cancers revealed that the family of molecules to which capsaicin belongs, the vanilloids, bind to proteins in the cancer cell mitochondria causing apoptosis (cell death) without harming surrounding healthy cells.
The Nottingham University breakthrough study raises hopes that the innate vulnerability of all cancers has been discovered and that drugs could now be developed to attack mitochondria in a similar way to capsaicin."
Another useful compound is curcumin, the yellow component of the spice turmeric:
A Report on Curcumin's Anti-Cancer Effects, January 2005:
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"Imagine a natural substance so smart it can tell the difference between a cancer cell and a normal cell; so powerful it can stop chemicals in their tracks; and so strong it can enable DNA to walk away from lethal doses of radiation virtually unscathed. Curcumin has powers against cancer so beneficial that drug companies are rushing to make drug versions. Curcumin is all this and more.
Curcuma longa is a ginger-like plant that grows in tropical regions. The roots contain a bright yellow substance (turmeric) that contains curcumin and other curcuminoids. Turmeric has been used in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine for centuries. But it's only within the past few years that the extraordinary actions of curcumin against cancer have been scientifically documented. Among its many benefits, curcumin has at least a dozen separate ways of interfering with cancer.
Curcumin blocks estrogen mimicking chemicals.
One of the things that sets curcumin apart from most other anti-cancer supplements (I3C being an exception), is that this phenolic can actually block chemicals from getting inside cells. Importantly, curcumin can interfere with pesticides that mimic estrogen. These include DDT and dioxin, two extremely toxic chemicals that contaminate America's water and food. (Dioxin is so toxic that a few ounces of it could wipe out the entire population of New York City). Curcumin has the unique ability to fit through a cellular doorway known as the aryl hydrocarbon receptor. This is a feat it shares with estrogen and estrogen-mimicking chemicals. Because it can compete for the same doorway, curcumin has the power to block access to the cell and protect against estrogen mimickers.
Like estrogen, estrogen-mimicking chemicals promote the growth of breast cancer. In a study on human breast cancer cells, curcumin reversed growth caused by 17b-estradiol by 98%. DDT's growth-enhancing effects on breast cancer were blocked about 75% by curcumin."
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And, if you don't mind smiling a lot while you get better, there are other possibilities as well. It was discovered back in 1974 that the primary constituent of cannabis, THC, killed brain cancer cells in mice: Antineoplastic activity of cannabinoids (hat tip to SeeEmmDee)
Another recent study (sorry I don't have the citation) found what they believe is the reason pot does NOT cause lung cancer, despite the preferred method of inhaling the drug, holding it as long as possible, and then exhaling.
It appears that certain marijuana constituents (I do think it was THC as well, but it could be the other cannabinoids present in pot) HASTEN the death of injured/diseased cells in the lungs and thus preventing those diseased cells from becoming cancerous.
As an Agent Orange-exposed, multiple cancer survivor I fully associate myself with Edger's remarks on the toxicity of dioxin: it is a substance I personally wish we could un-invent.
Any drug or combination of drugs to replace chemotherapy and radiation will be a godsend for every cancer victim.
Chemo made me sicker, did not affect the dioxin-caused cancers, could not even shrink the tumors in my neck and left side of my face, and only succeeded to severely impair the nerves and muscles of my hands and feet. Imagine not being able to pick up a dime or penny off a tabletop because your fingers feel like hugh sausages without ANY FEELING whatever. For two years.
Six weeks of radiation therapy cost me 55 lbs of weight, damaged my nervous system, destroyed one salivary gland and severely damaged the others (I scoff at anyone complaining of cottonmouth!), and, as I later learned, the full effect of radiation-scarring isn't felt until ten years or so later, and it's b-a-d.
I hold that one day in the future doctor's will deem radiation treatment to be the modern day equivalent of medieval blood-letting.
A radical neck dissection was required to rid myself of the cancers. That's where they just start cutting out tissue and keep cutting it out until they finally are told by the lab that they got it all and can close up. 10 1/2 hours in my case and the severing of the 5th and 11th cranial nerves and the long thoracic nerve, leaving me in eternal 24/7/365 neurological pain.
I would not wish any of these things to happen to my worst enemy, much less the millions that suffer the ravages of cancer and I heartily endorse and contribute what I can to help defeat it. Let's just hope they continue to develop "kinder, gentler" cures.
Sorry for the long comment.
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