(DCA) dichloroacetate

www.dca.med.ualberta.ca/Home/Updates/2007-03-15_Update.cfm - 
- www.newscientist.com/.../dn10971-cheap-safe-drug-kills-most-cancers.html - 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichloroacetic_acid  



The University of Alberta Discovery

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. Sebastien Bonnet, have published the results of their research in the journal Cancer Cell.

The results from 2010, in Science Translational Medicine, revealed that it probably extended the lives of four of the patients, while one other died.

Most importantly, Michelakis demonstrated from brain scans and biopsies that DCA appeared to work as he had predicted, arresting the growth of cancer cells by switching them back to normal energy production in mitochondria. The experiments also showed that beneficial effects took a few months to kick in. Importantly, Michelakis said that despite the small trial, it would be impossible to tell whether DCA works or not until it is tested in a placebo-controlled trial.