Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8940

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Publication type: news

Sinnema J.
Patients lining up for cancer 'magic bullet'
The Edmonton Journal 2007 Mar 16
http://www.canada.com/topics/bodyandhealth/story.html?id=22ac1a32-4a50-406b-8f24-ff50422665cb&k=54715

Full text:

Desperate cancer patients are self-medicating with an inexpensive compound that has yet to be tested in humans, despite warnings of toxic poisonings and and even death from researchers at the University of Alberta, who used the chemical to shrink tumours in rats.

Interest in dichloroacetate, or DCA, has skyrocketed since January, when the prominent academic journal Cancer Cell published a U of A doctor’s findings that showed the compound — used only in lab animals — shrinks tumours without damaging healthy cells.

People latched onto the news since DCA costs about $2 a dose and has been shown — though only in ongoing clinical trials — to be safe to treat people for metabolic disorders or heart disease. DCA is not available in pharmacies and has not been approved by Health Canada or the Food and Drug Administration in the United States.

Yet an online report from Newsweek said, “If there were a magic bullet (for cancer), it might be something like dichloroacetate.”

A student newspaper editor in Southern Mississippi wrote an article with the headline, Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice.

When ABC News ran an online analysis with an American Cancer Society doctor, the doctor was skeptical and cautious, since the research is in the early stages. Yet, he said, the society had been swamped by a “tsunami wave” of interest about the material.

Now, hundreds of people are trying desperately to buy the water-soluble powder from chemical suppliers, giving each other advice over the Internet on how to mix the ingredients, discussing how strong doses should be or how to convince their doctors to come on board.

“Can anyone help? It’s almost too late,” Rob from Saskatchewan wrote on a discussion board on www.thedcasite.com. “My mother has about one month left. We have sources to fill prescriptions but cannot find an MD in Saskatchewan to prescribe. Her current doctor will not even consider it and we can’t even get past other doctor’s secretaries who are either rude or ask things like, ‘Is this some kind of homeopathic thing.’ “

A woman called Sandra said her family physician in Edmonton was willing to prescribe DCA, though she would not post his name because he could lose his licence.

One writer who says he is a physician in his forties and has metastatic sarcoma, said he obtained DCA from a friend of a friend and upped his dosage after a few days.

“I notice no side-effects, except maybe a little lethargy, but that may be from the thiamine supplement,” he wrote. “I do not agree that DCA is a safe drug. It can be used safely, but it is definitely something that needs to be taken under physician supervision.”

He said it can cause low blood sugar, a drop in cholesterol and changes in cell metabolism.

“I don’t know if I have six months,” he wrote.

Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, the cardiologist and researcher whose academic paper sparked the worldwide fervour surrounding DCA, said people shouldn’t take the compound until clinical trials prove the drug is safe for humans and actually shrinks tumours, as it did in rats.

“We are concerned,” said Michelakis, who set up a website with the U of A saying he doesn’t condone or advise the use of DCA in humans. The site has received more than 141,000 hits and Michelakis has received more than 10,000 e-mails from people eager to become involved in clinical trials.

“We absolutely do not support the use of this drug to patients with cancer any way out of a clinical trial. There are a number of risks associated with it, and unfortunately patients and physicians are exposing each other to these risks.”

In clinical trials to see how DCA works on metabolic disorders, children took the drug and showed no signs of toxic poisoning.

But when the same trials were done on adults, most had to discontinue using it, since they developed severe peripheral neuropathy, Michelakis said. The damage to the peripheral nerves caused imbalance and finger numbness.

While the effects were reversible, Michelakis said if people take DCA while also undergoing other cancer treatments, the consequences could be lethal.

“Most of the anti-cancer drugs that we currently use are neurotoxic themselves,” he said.

“So a patient who has been exposed to these drugs and now tries DCA might have a severe form of peripheral neuropathy. This patient might have severe problems that he cannot walk or he cannot touch or feel.”

Even for those who say they have only six months to live and nothing to lose, Michelakis said it’s not worth the risk.

“Of course you have things to lose, because you can die earlier and in much worse shape,” he said.

He said self-medicating without proper supervision has broader implications.

“It’s a public health threat if you start using on your own and acting out of your own desperate situation,” he said, noting that people taking DCA have no mechanism to formally report side-

effects and complications. Nor can they know if the compound is pure.

“That’s the worst nightmare in medicine, to start making judgments on whether a drug is good or bad based on what any patient will post on a blog. This is the death of medicine and organized research as we know it.”

Yet Jim Tassano, a biologist in Sonora, Calif., said he created the DCA website in early February because he doesn’t want his ballroom dance instructor to die of cancer. The website, www.thedcasite.com, is a direct result of Michelakis’s research, Tassano said.

Tassano and a chemist from the University of California have begun making DCA and selling it over the Internet. The buydca.com site says the compound is for experimental treatment for pets with terminal cancer, but Tassano said he knows people are buying it for themselves or family members as well.

“There are unknowns, but at a low dosage rate, if I were a cancer patient, I would take it,” said Tassano, 54. “Are there side-effects? Absolutely, but compare that to radiation.”

He said waiting for clinical trials isn’t an option for dying people.

“What’s the worst that can happen here?” he asked in a telephone interview. “Is it fair to let people die and not do anything about this?”

Tassano said he sells his compound for 90 cents a gram and assures people the product is 99.59 per cent pure. He said his colleague has applied for a patent on the way he formulates the powder, but while they hope to profit from it, they haven’t done so yet. Nor do they plan to raise the price.

“We don’t want to have blood money. We want to be a major provider at a super low cost,” Tassano said, noting he has no way to ensure buyers are only using the compounds on pets or on people dying from cancer.

“I took a big gamble here. What if I did not act? I couldn’t stand it. It was a very emotional thing.”

Tassano said his dance instructor will have scans done next month to see if his tumours are shrinking. If the DCA hasn’t worked — or if future clinical trials don’t show promise — Tassano said he would shut his business down.

“I really think DCA is going to work,” he said. He spoke with someone on Tuesday whose father has Stage 4 lung cancer. The man said his dad has cut in half the number of painkillers he takes and has gained three pounds.

But Michelakis said anyone can make DCA, since it’s a relatively simple material made of vinegar and two chlorides.

“The question is how stable it is? How do you purify it? How do you sterilize it? How do you adjust the PHs and how do you store it?” he asked.

“DCA is a generic drug. Anybody can make it, but it goes with a responsibility of whoever is making it and also, whoever is receiving it.”

Michelakis said he also feels a responsibility to let people know of the dangers, but can only do so much.

“You produce your science and you let the world know that there is a potential new way of treating cancer and you do the right thing,” he said. “You move right away to clinical trial and you try to prove that your claims or your hopes were right. Unfortunately, we cannot prevent people taking advantage of people and trying to distribute this drug for other reasons. We can only be careful what we say and what we do.”

jsinnema@thejournal.canwest.com