Posted: 03/28/07

Cancer breakthrough
Canadian scientists find potential inexpensive, easy cure for most cancers

Meghan Louf | contributing writer
mlouf@smcvt.edu

Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada have discovered an inexpensive, easy-to-produce drug that may cure several types of cancer. In human cells cultured outside the body, the drug killed lung, breast, and brain cancer cells, while it left healthy cells untouched.

Cheap and easy

The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), is commonly used to correct metabolism errors in small children. As such, it is known to be reasonably safe for humans. Unlike typical cancer treatments, DCA appears to have little or no side effects, according to Dr. Evangelos Michelakis of the University of Edmonton. Michelakis, along with his colleagues, is leading this research.

“It’s a relatively safe drug that has been used in healthy humans and sick ones [so we know] it can be tested on humans,” Michelakis says.

In the past few months, this research has sparked attention on the Internet, and Michelakis and his team have received much press coverage; CNN, Newsweek, New Scientist magazine, and The Economist magazine have all featured stories dedicated to these potentially groundbreaking developments.

DCA is a small molecule that has been used in the past for aiding young children with metabolism problems due to mitochondria diseases. (Colin Vallance, photo)

Currently, DCA hasn’t been patented, meaning that if found to be successful, it could be sold at a very low cost.

“DCA is so cheap. It costs less than 10 cents,” writes Daily O’Collegian opinion writer Danny Groshong, a student at Oklahoma State University. Groshong says industries don’t want people to hear about this drug because they want to protect their own egos and pocketbooks.

According to Groshong, the real story is that if this inexpensive treatment works out, all the outrageously expensive treatments like chemotherapy won’t be necessary any longer, meaning much less profit for the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry.

How does it work?

According to the Cambridge University Press, mitochondria is an organelle that produces 80 percent of a cell’s energy and hosts other cell functions. Cancer cells use glycolysis instead of mitochondria, however glycolysis produces more lactic acid, which makes the outer tissue of cancer cells weak and breakable, inevitably increasing the growth of tumors.

“Lactic acidosis, in very simple terms, occurs in our bodies when we are very ill or may be suddenly severely traumatized,” writes Dr. Len Lichtenfeld of the American Cancer Society, in an e-mail. “Our cells basically become starved for energy and switch into other energy pathways that rely less on oxygen, resulting in the production of lactic acid.”

Researchers have generally thought this was because the mitochondria was damaged. Mitochondria, with a large source of energy, has the ability to kill bad cells. Originally researchers believed that damaged mitochondria was a result of cancer, but Michelakis wasn’t sure, and thus began testing DCA.

DCA is a small molecule that has been used in the past for aiding young children with metabolism problems due to mitochondria diseases. DCA is odorless, colorless, and, because it has been used in other medical situations like metabolism, harmless, according to the University of Alberta DCH Web site.

Why haven’t we heard of it?

Michelakis presented his discoveries on his medical journal on March 15, and explained the importance of cancer research, while noting that since the drug is not patented, all research is currently privately funded and therefore very difficult to continue.

In human cells cultured outside the body, DCA killed lung, breast, and brain cancer cells while it left healthy cells untouched. (Colin Vallance, photo)

Groshong believes the reason DCA hasn’t circulated throughout the media yet is because of its low price, and Michelakis believes this lack of funding limits him.

“It’s still in the early stages and they need more support, but if people have faith then there is hope to have the drug on the market in the future,” Michelakis says.

DCA is currently funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) and other small organizations, but Michelakis is concerned his team won’t get other private funding.

The research team is awaiting formal approval from Health Canada to begin testing on cancer patients — an aspiration that has the team working at an expedited pace.

“We are optimistic that we will be able to launch the trials within a matter of months, a process that normally takes several years.” Michelakis wrote in his March 15 journal entry.

Hope vs. likeliness: What do people think?

Jessica Mollmark, a 2006 St. Michael’s College graduate, currently works as a research assistant at Dartmouth Medical School and earned a scholarship her senior year as a result of her research in the field of cancer.

“While findings in the lab can be very important and exciting, it might not be circulated widely to the public until DCA has gone through human trials, which might really show its potential as a cancer drug,” Mollmark wrote in an e-mail interview.

To some, DCA might seem too good to be true. There are some researchers and spectators that do not support DCA as “the new miracle drug.”

“I am not saying this is a theory that won't work,” wrote Lichtenfeld. “It may, and if it does prove valuable, that would be terrific. It is just that I have been around a while and have seen this type of hope and hype just a few times too many.”

“We are aware that each day the research is delayed greatly impacts those of you who are living with cancer and those of you caring for someone with cancer. ” -Dr. Evangelos Michelakis

Despite skepticism, some think that even if the results are initially unsuccessful, research should be continued.

“As much money [as needed] should be put into research,” says Kristen Dalton, a first-year biology major at St. Michael's. “It’s the final result that is important.” With loved ones close to Dalton who suffer from cancer, it is important to keep fighting because people are depending on doctors and scientists, she says.

“We are aware that each day the research is delayed greatly impacts those of you who are living with cancer and those of you caring for someone with cancer,” Michelakis writes.

Regardless of the outcome, Mollmark says she thinks it is important to learn from all research and discovery.

“Even if DCA, or another molecule, does not become a cancer drug, what was learned in the process can contribute to research of other molecules that might become effective cancer treatments,” she says. “The more we can learn about cancer processes and the molecules that have some effect on these processes, the closer we might come to finding a better cancer therapeutic.”

Currently, it’s hard to tell if this drug will hit hospitals in the near future. It all depends on government approval and a collection of 1.5 million dollars for the continuation of research, Michelakis says. So far, he says, he and his research team have gathered approximately $100,000 and will hopefully begin testing DCA on humans suffering from cancer this spring.