Is DCA a Cure for Cancer?
News about a chemical called dichloroacetic acid (DCA), an inexpensive drug that may cure cancer without side effects, is making the rounds of cyber space at warp speed.
The research on DCA is being done at the University of Alberta in Canada, led by Evangelos Michelakis. Preliminary research in the test tube and on rats is very promising.
The American Cancer Society Responds
DCA has attracted so much attention that Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, was moved to write a somewhat testy essay about it on his blog. His overall take on DCA: maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, don’t get excited about it yet. The conspiracy theorists claim that because DCA has no patent, the drug will never be widely used in cancer treatment because there are no large profits to be made.
The DCA Theory
DCA reportedly works by making cancer cells commit suicide without harming healthy cells. Very simplistically put, most cells produce their energy through tiny furnaces called mitochondria that use oxygen. In tumors, the mitochondria are shut down and the cancer cells turn to an alternate energy-producing process called glycolysis. (Glycolysis depends heavily on sugar, which is one reason why a sugar-laden diet encourages cancer growth.) The theory of DCA is that it switches the mitochondria back on, which kills the cancer cells, largely through a process called apoptosis (a-pop-toe'-sis), which causes old or damaged cells to kill themselves. One of the traits that allows a cell to become cancerous is that it doesn’t die when it’s supposed to.
Dr. Lichtenfeld claims that articles he read (he doesn’t cite them) show that DCA causes liver cancer in rats. However, in the DCA research Michelakis did with rats, there were no side effects.
Buyer Be Aware
This is most definitely an experimental cancer drug that has limited research on rats, and no published research on how it works in humans. The theory sounds good, and if it works as well Michelakis believes it does, it would be an inexpensive cancer treatment with few, if any side effects. The research is being done at a respectable university, not in someone's garage. And let’s keep in mind that conventional chemotherapy sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t, and almost always has serious side effects. That makes the use of DCA a very personal choice. There are already websites popping up that are selling DCA but there's no way to know how legitimate they are.
If you’d like to read more detailed information about DCA, here’s a link to an article, "Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers" published in New Scientist magazine.