Way-cool science news: a cure for cancer?

[Iangould]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...t-cancers.html

The headline pretty much says it all: Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers

The drug in question. dichloroacetate (DCA). has been used to treat other conditions for years so it seems pretty certain its safe.

It's also not covered by any patents so it should be very cheap to mass-produce.

The description of how it works suggests it might only work on solid tissue cancers not lymphomas, skin cancers or bone marrow cancers.

But still, great news.

[Mike Smash!]

That's excellent news. I really hope that this pans out.

[Alex]

Why isn't this gigantic news?

[JuggernautRM]

Because they don't want you to know while they try and squish this down so they can still reap money off of cancer afflicted people who have to buy drugs that cost 500 a pop.

[BlairH]

If only they knew of this treatment last year :(
(lost a friend to complications of lymphoma)

[Shellhead]

This is good news, but not great. Animal studies are promising, but it's the human trials that are extremely expensive, for medical, legal, and regulatory reasons. If there isn't a big financial payoff, it will be harder to organize this expensive research effort. Also, there are some negative side-effects, and a whole galaxy of potential drug interaction issues yet to be discovered. It could be several years before this is available even by prescription.

[Michael P]

Why isn't this gigantic news?

Probably because they haven't done human trials yet.

Still, if this pans out, Nobel Prize.

[Sean Walsh]

Probably because they haven't done human trials yet.

Still, if this pans out, Nobel Prize.

Just a Nobel Prize?

I'd say we kill all world leaders and build a giant throne made of their corpses for the guy who created this!

[BlairH]

Just a Nobel Prize?

I'd say we kill all world leaders and build a giant throne made of their corpses for the guy who created this!

Blood for the blood God! Skulls for the skull throne of Khorne!

Ahem...

[Jack Zodiac]

Blood for the blood God! Skulls for the skull throne of Khorne!

Ahem...

Blair, gettin' his Warhammer on.

This is awesome news. Between this and the recent news about a potential cure for diabetes, we're finally making some bigger strides in medical science. Go, science!

[Iangould]

This is good news, but not great. Animal studies are promising, but it's the human trials that are extremely expensive, for medical, legal, and regulatory reasons.

Fortunately DCA has already been approved for use in humans for other conditions, that gets it past the first couple of levels of human testing which are really about ensuring it isn't toxic and straight into the efficacy testing.

I also suspect we're going to see a sudden surge in prescribing DCA even before the test results are in.

If this lives up to its potential, it'll save phenomenal amounts of money - probably tens of billions of dollars a year globally - I'd be astonished if no government funded the trials and even then I suspect one of the big charity foundations would come to the party.

I can see trials on advanced terminal cancer patients starting in a matter of months.

[Iangould]

Just a Nobel Prize?

I'd say we kill all world leaders ...

With you so far.

[Jack Zodiac]

Upon actually reading the article, it seems they've done a whole lot more than possibly curing several types of cancer. They've apparently also figured out how and why secondary cancers develope, which means DCA wouldn't just cure cancer, but could prevent the spread of cancer to other organs beforehand.

Fuckin' awesome.

[Iangould]

Upon actually reading the article, it seems they've done a whole lot more than possibly curing several types of cancer. They've apparently also figured out how and why secondary cancers develope, which means DCA wouldn't just cure cancer, but could prevent the spread of cancer to other organs beforehand.

Fuckin' awesome.

Not to mention that at least in animal models its effective when taken orally.

I can see low doses being given to people at heightened risk of cancer prophylacticly.

But how are we going to keep the smokers ground beneath the iron boot of our oppression now?

[Jack Zodiac]

With the recent uproar in my area about smoking (I live in Ohio, we just passed the state-wide smoking ban), I'm surprised that lung cancer wasn't one of the first things I thought of.