Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum DCA Cancer cure

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=677_1354418535

I think I will sell it!

since they don't seem to think it's worth the trouble.

if they don't like it , it's got to be good!

of course I wouldn't dare claim that it cures cancer
I will only sell it as a supplement , like all the other
cures are sold as.



oh , they need funding but they don't want funding from
pharma!

this way the products can become available for sale and not
swept under the cancer cure rug.

I think I will let them have the profits from my sales.

Call me unimpressed - the guy in the video all worked up about killing human cancers in petri dishes obviously knows little of biological research - killing cells in petri dishes is easy; even in finding compounds that affect cancer cells more than normal cells in petri dishes is easy. Finding a compound that works equivalently well in a human, that isn't too toxic to use, is very hard.

The actual evidence showing DCA (dichloroacetic acid) having a beneficial effect on cancer is weak. There is one human trial with 5 patients, of whom two showed minor improvements over non-treatment. A second human trial of of ~50 patients showed no measurable benefit. At high doses it shows some toxicity, but so do most cancer drugs, so that's not all that unusual. I've been working in biomed for the better part of 20 years - if I had to bet, I'd bet that DCA will ultimately be shown to be ineffective or of minor effect. A trial of 50 patients should have shown a positive signal of some sort if the compound had any meaningful degree of efficacy.

As for pharma, there is and always will be zero interest in DCA. Clinical trials cost close to a billion dollars to perform. DCA is not patentable; meaning any company that did a trial would never be able to recoup the investment. It sucks, but that is reality - like all companies, drug companies can only exist if they make a profit. A billion dollars cannot be spent without expectation of a return.

DCA trials are occurring, driven by some of my fellow academic researchers. However, the kinds of money needed to put something like DCA through a phase III large enough to show efficacy and safety is beyond the resources of most publicly funded research - not that I have high hopes that DCA will amount to more than yet another of hundreds of tested (and failed) compounds.

Bryan

its a good idea to provide links to support your comments
I would like to see the clinical trial data myself and mostly
who provided the funding for the billion dollar trials.

not that I don't trust the medical industry, or that I ever will.