Cure for most cancers discovered... accidentally

fiddleronvermouth · Post by **fiddleronvermouth** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 7:37 pm

Isn't it the way these things always seem to happen? A drug intended for something else entirely ends up being what they've been looking for... and it's been around for years.

Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers

Chiffed · Post by **Chiffed** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 7:54 pm

Cool. And it's usually known as a toxic industrial waste. Where's the irony smiley?

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:08 pm

If it sounds too good to be true...

anniemcu · Post by **anniemcu** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:29 pm

brewerpaul wrote:If it sounds too good to be true...

Here's to it being the exception to that rule...

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:02 pm

That would be quite interesting.

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:14 pm

We've had a few cases of wonder drugs that really weren't too good to be true, like aspirin and penicillin. I hope this one lives up to the promise.

djm · Post by **djm** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:17 pm

Not sure where you got the idea dichloroacetate, or DCA, is industrial waste. It's long been used to treat some metabolic disorders like lactic acidosis.

The real problem is that this is such an old drug that it is not patentable any more. That means the big drug companies aren't going to put any money into research. That means its up to government to fund the remaining studies to get this stuff trialed on humans. And since the big drug companies don't want the competition, government funds will probably be very scarce.

I expect this one will either quietly disappear, or someone from a government lab will find some "quite unexpected" problem (excuse) and then it will disappear.

There's no profit in actually curing cancer.

djm

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:20 pm

There have been so many promises of major breakthroughs in cancer research.

I remember when my brother Bill was dying of lymphoma, the media were heavily hyping "research that kills virtually any cancer by shrinking the blood vessels that feed the tumor!".

After Bill died, my sister wanted to know why the docs hadn't tried this treatment on him.

It was well over a year later, if memory serves, when there were a few very brief articles discussing how the treatment didn't prove to be all that effective in real life, and how the researchers initial claims had been blown out of proportion in the initial reports.

Everytime there is one of these "major breakthroughs," I hope and yet I wince, because I pretty much know it's not going to pan out to really be anything useful, and I understand firsthand the pain and anguish these reports cause in cancer patients and their families.

--James

Chiffed · Post by **Chiffed** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:20 am

djm wrote:Not sure where you got the idea dichloroacetate, or DCA, is industrial waste. It's long been used to treat some metabolic disorders like lactic acidosis.

The real problem is that this is such an old drug that it is not patentable any more. That means the big drug companies aren't going to put any money into research. That means its up to government to fund the remaining studies to get this stuff trialed on humans. And since the big drug companies don't want the competition, government funds will probably be very scarce.

I expect this one will either quietly disappear, or someone from a government lab will find some "quite unexpected" problem (excuse) and then it will disappear.

There's no profit in actually curing cancer.

djm

http://www.ehponline.org/docs/1998/Supp ... tract.html

The chemical is a product of water chlorination and of the metabolism of various drugs and industrial chemicals. Its accumulation in groundwater and at certain Superfund sites is considered a potential health hazard.

djm · Post by **djm** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:25 am

Gotcha.

djm

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:35 pm

peeplj wrote:......Everytime there is one of these "major breakthroughs," I hope and yet I wince, because I pretty much know it's not going to pan out to really be anything useful, and I understand firsthand the pain and anguish these reports cause in cancer patients and their families.

--James

The media is always quick to release any tidbits... even speculation of anything promising. Because it's newsworthy... something 'we' all want to know about.

djm wrote:.....There's no profit in actually curing cancer.

djm

I think djm summed it up nicely.

Caj · Post by **Caj** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 3:08 pm

djm wrote: There's no profit in actually curing cancer.

Of course there is profit in curing cancer. Why wouldn't there be? A large number of people desperately seek a cure.

Just because a company cannot get a patent monopoly on a medicine doesn't mean they can't profit from manufacturing it.

Caj

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 3:59 pm

Caj wrote:
djm wrote: There's no profit in actually curing cancer.
Of course there is profit in curing cancer. Why wouldn't there be? A large number of people desperately seek a cure.

Just because a company cannot get a patent monopoly on a medicine doesn't mean they can't profit from manufacturing it.

Caj

Read into it differently.
Finding an inexpensive cure for cancer would change the medical system as we know it. There would be many less Chemotherapy and radiation procedures... less surgeries, shorter hospital stays. Millions of dollars supporting (read: pouring into) this part of the medical field would diminish.