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DCA: Cancer Breakthrough or Urban Legend?

OPINION by LEN LICHTENFELD, M.D.

Feb. 5, 2007

There is the medical equivalent of a tsunami wave building out there, only we don't know where this one is going to land.

 

It is called DCA, and we at the American Cancer Society are suddenly receiving requests for information about something few if any of us had heard about as a cancer treatment until this past week.

 

I suspect some of this rapid explosion is fueled in part by the Internet and the rapid exchange of information, and some by advocates who believe in the long-held conspiracy theory that someone is holding back the single simple answer to curing all cancer.

 

We even received an urgent plea from one media outlet Thursday asking us to help them out with understanding DCA, since its Web site was being inundated with Internet traffic that was overwhelming its servers.

 

Before we replace rational discourse with irrational exuberance, it is my personal opinion that a bit of caution is in order. The basic reason for my conservative view is "been there, done that."

LINK

 

There might be something to this. Or it could be another dead end. Like laetrile, the stuff from apricot pits. Or maybe it's a breakthrough that just isn't profitable to the medical industry. I could see that happening.

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Too easy and cheap to make so pharmaceutical corps want nothing to do with it. I swear man this some BS. No profit, no cure.

 

 

I've survived cancer twice. There are so many types of cancer one drug might not cure all of them. But I do know that my doctor wanted to give a drug this last time I had cancer, but the drug is not available in the USA because he said it was to cheap to make and since there was no money in it it was not available here. (it is in Europe).

 

There was also a story on 60 Minutes awhile back about radio waves and metal particles that sounded promising.

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I've survived cancer twice. There are so many types of cancer one drug might not cure all of them. But I do know that my doctor wanted to give a drug this last time I had cancer, but the drug is not available in the USA because he said it was to cheap to make and since there was no money in it it was not available here. (it is in Europe).

 

There was also a story on 60 Minutes awhile back about radio waves and metal particles that sounded promising.

 

The Kanzius machine? http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5394576n

I remember seeing that...it looked interesting.

 

The title is kind of misleading. Cancer hasn't been cured. DCA isn't a 100% cure. It's like anything else, it helps get us closer but doctors are still doing research on it. I think DCA had issues with colorectal tumors...actually increasing the size of the tumors instead of decreasing it. Still, as said in the video, DCA is already available for off-label use. So it's up to the doctor to suggest it for your specific cancer.

It sucks that pharmas can't get behind something that's not profitable, but that's how the free market works. It's like a company finding a rock that cures cancer, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to push it through trials, getting rejected by the FDA...redoing trials, spending more money, then a decade or more later finally able to market the drug to find out the consumer just says, "um, why don't I just use this much cheaper rock that's been around in my yard for years instead?" There are only a handful of existing pharmaceuticals that would be able to push this through pro-bono. The rest of the industry just doesn't have the financial backing to take on something like that.

If DCA is the miracle drug we're hoping for....hopefully private/public funding becomes available for those trying to push it through. With something like DCA and the Kanzius machine it's going to take years and years for the scientific community to test, peer review and validate it as a cure. Then of course there's the FDA process.

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I can sorta understand why the Pharmeceutical companies wouldn't want to get involved...But what's stopping someone like Coke from developing this as an additive in an "energy drink" marketed towards cancer victims...er..survivors? I don't think "supplements" have to go through near as much testing as "drugs" and even without the large proffit margin, the positive image generated would be huge.

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It sucks that pharmas can't get behind something that's not profitable, but that's how the free market works.

 

The American Cancer Society takes in a lot of money, some of which I believe is supposed to go to research.

 

Like I said in my original post one of the drugs the doctor wanted to give me when I had cancer is not available in the USA, because there is no money in the making of it. But it is available in Europe, maybe they have some wild notion that lives might be worth something in comparison to money..

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I find it hard to believe that any company would shy away from r&d/distribution on any cancer cure product. A product that families would literally give anything monetarily to have.

 

The people I have known with cancer (and their insurance companies) spent massive amount of money on cancer drugs and treatments, some successful, some not. Along with families that spent their life saving after their health insurance lifetime maximum coverage ran out.

 

From a purely financial point of view, how can a big drug company not want to be a part of that?

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