Guest guest Posted February 17, 2007 Report Share Posted February 17, 2007 -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- DCA FAQs Frequently Asked Questions Updated January 23, 2007 Click HERE for a printable Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Document -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is DCA and how does it work? DCA is a drug that " boosts " the function of mitochondria. Mitochondria are the energy-producing units within cells and they regulate the energy production in the body (i.e. the metabolism). Cancer somehow suppresses the function of mitochondria and by achieving this it gains " eternal life " . We believe that cancer cells die when the mitochondria are " normalized " or boosted by DCA. Because these effects in mitochondria occur only in cancer and not normal cells, we believe that DCA will not have the significant side effects (hair loss, nausea, heart failure etc) that many standard chemotherapies have. Can my doctor order DCA? Your doctor cannot prescribe DCA since it is currently not approved for use in patients with cancer. DCA is not available in pharmacies. The only way that DCA will become available for use in patients with cancer is under appropriately performed clinical trials and supervision by appropriate regulatory agencies like Health Canada or the Food and Drug Administration in the USA. Can I find and use DCA on my own? Absolutely not! This can actually be dangerous. For example, DCA can be found in stores selling chemicals to scientific laboratories. Often, DCA is sold in a form that is very acidic and if consumed could cause serious or catastrophic complications. Even for use in animals DCA often has to be processed with chemicals to correct its acidity etc. In addition, the dose in patients with cancer, or its interactions with other medications that cancer patients might be on, are completely unknown. Often, patients with terminal cancer might feel they are in a desperate situation and might be " willing to try anything " . It needs to be remembered that the inappropriate use of these drugs might cause catastrophic complications and make the situation even worse. In addition, if complications occur, because this was not done under the supervision of a physician, this problem will not become known and other patients might be exposed to a risk that could have been prevented. Can DCA treat my cancer? DCA was shown to have beneficial effects in lung and breast cancer as well as a form of brain cancer (glioblastoma). These effects occurred in human cancers growing in the test tube. In the case of lung cancer, tumors growing in rats decreased in size after the rats were given DCA. The effects on other kinds of tumors are completely unknown. However, because mitochondria appear to be suppressed in many different forms of cancer, we speculate that DCA will have beneficial effects in other types of cancer as well. Once again, in order to determine if DCA is effective (and safe) in patients with cancer, appropriately conducted clinical trials are absolutely required. When will the clinical trials start? In order to be absolutely certain that DCA is effective and safe in patients with cancer, studies involving thousands of patients with different cancers, from different hospitals and different countries have to be conducted. Often, direct comparisons of one experimental treatment with other standard therapies are required. These large-scale trials will take years to complete and will require hundreds of millions of dollars. However, smaller and more focused trials can occur much faster. The funding required for such trials is less (in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars) and the procedures are easier than in drugs that have never before tried in any human being. Still, protocols of such trials need to be approved by local and federal agencies and funding secured A number of physicians and scientists from the University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board have already started working together and have received commitment from the leadership of these institutions to help make these trials happen as soon as possible. We hope that initiation of trials will occur shortly, i.e. within a few months. We plan to post our progress towards this goal on this website. How can I help? We appreciate your interest, and support and we have been touched by your kind words. We also understand the agony in many of you that you see your loved ones in desperate need of a treatment or a hope. We have been working on this for at least 2 years now and we will continue to work hard in order to determine whether this drug can actually benefit human beings with cancer. Your continued support of research in general is greatly appreciated by all of us in this field and it is important since a great deal of funding comes directly from the people (tax payer money coming to us through federal funding agencies like CIHR or charities). If you want to directly support this effort (that at this time receives no financial support from " for profit " organizations, pharmaceutical or private companies), you can do so in this web site. Return to DCA Research Information Homepage -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.