Scientists may have cured cancer last week.
Yep.
So, why haven’t the media picked up on it?
Here’s the deal. Researchers at the University of Alberta in
Edmonton, Canada found a cheap and easy to produce drug that kills
almost all cancers. The drug is dichloroacetate, and since it is
already used to treat metabolic disorders, we know it should be no
problem to use it for other purposes.
Doesn’t this sound like the kind of news you see on the front
page of every paper?
The drug also has no patent, which means it could be produced
for bargain basement prices in comparison to what drug companies
research and develop.
Scientists tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body
where it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but left
healthy cells alone. Rats plump with tumors shrank when they were
fed water supplemented with DCA.
Again, this seems like it should be at the top of the nightly
news, right?
Cancer cells don’t use the little power stations found in most
human cells - the mitochondria. Instead, they use glycolysis, which
is less effective and more wasteful.
Doctors have long believed the reason for this is because the
mitochondria were damaged somehow. But, it turns out the
mitochondria were just dormant, and DCA starts them back up
again.
The side effect of this is it also reactivates a process called
apoptosis. You see, mitochondria contain an all-too-important
self-destruct button that can’t be pressed in cancer cells. Without
it, tumors grow larger as cells refuse to be extinguished. Fully
functioning mitochondria, thanks to DCA, can once again die.
With glycolysis turned off, the body produces less lactic acid,
so the bad tissue around cancer cells doesn’t break down and seed
new tumors.
Here’s the big catch. Pharmaceutical companies probably won’t
invest in research into DCA because they won’t profit from it. It’s
easy to make, unpatented and could be added to drinking water.
Imagine, Gatorade with cancer control.
So, the groundwork will have to be done at universities and
independently funded laboratories. But, how are they supposed to
drum up support if the media aren’t even talking about it?
All I can do is write this and hope Google News picks it up. In
the meantime, tell everyone you know and do your own research.
This is a column of opinion written by Printz Executive Editor
David McRaney. Comments can be sent to printz@usm.edu
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Tim Shumbera
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