Do miracles really work? Affordable unpatented drug cures cancer, or so it seems
Giovanna Di Sauro
When a miracle is an orphan
This past January, New Scientist published an article with a stunning headline: “Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers.” The drug in question is sodium dichloroacetate, simply referred to as DCA. DCA has already been used to treat a disease called lactic acidosis in children, however, recent studies show that DCA peripheral nerve toxicity results in such high discontinuation rates that it was hard for the researchers to assess its benefit in the treatment of lactic acidosis and other ailments.
In the study conducted by Dr. Evangelos Michelakis (University of Alberta) and colleagues, DCA was used on several cancers cell lines to reactivate dormant mitochondria in the cancer cells. The activation of mitochondria results in the subsequent reactivation of repressed apoptotic (suicide) pathways in cancer cells, effectively killing them. Mice that were injected with cancer cells from cell lines and grew tumours enjoyed significant tumour shrinkage after oral treatment with sodium DCA dissolved in water and properly buffered.
These results, and the relatively cheap price of chemical-grade DCA (98 per cent sodium DCA sells for about $40.70 CND for 10 grams) made such a discovery a headline for television channels like CTV, Global, and CNN. However, what really has drawn attention to this story is the fact that all the funding for medium (Phase II) and large (Phase III) trials will have to come from government funds or private donors, as pharmaceutical companies have shied away from DCA, which is an unpatented drug. In fact, although researchers can still file use patents restricting and regulating the use of a certain compound for a novel use, it must not be forgotten that Phase III clinical trials, whose cost is about 40 per cent of the whole drug-development process, fail about 40 per cent of the time, as the tested compound is eventually shown to be ineffective at best, or at times, even unsafe. And nothing at this point can guarantee that DCA will be safe for use in cancer patients.
Moreover, clinical trial failure has relevant impacts on pharmaceutical companies. After the failure of a large 15,000-person trial for a promising cholesterol drug, which was found to be associated to high death rates, Pfizer, the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, is planning to lay off 2,000 sales representatives, which represent about 20 per cent of its workforce. On October 26, 2006, AstraZeneca announced that its Phase III trials for a promising stroke drug had failed: the company’s stock plummeted by 7.5 per cent on that one day.
As nothing can guarantee that DCA will work in cancer patients and clinical trials, and the drug has not been developed or discovered by the pharmaceutical industry, it is unlikely we will see legitimate drug producers jump on DCA any time soon. At least not until efficacy and safety have been proven in publicly funded clinical trials. Such trials might be starting relatively soon: the University of Alberta has set up a website dedicated on DCA for everyone who wants to know more and donate money to help fund these trials. In the meantime, however, those who are impatient or disillusioned by the pharmaceutical industry have decided to take things in their own hands and help cancer patients desperate for a cure — or so it seems.
Can we believe in miracles? A look at the miracle-sellers
In the wake of sensationalist news on DCA, someone started answering the desperate web postings of people in search of the miracle “cure for cancer.” But the intentions behind such acts often go beyond charity, and the compounds marketed are potentially unsafe for human consumption. The “Respectful Insolence Blog” reported that somebody had set up the website buyDCA.com, where people could buy DCA to cure cancer in pets, including 150-pound pets. On February 20, buyDCA.com had a clean interface, with a sad-looking dog on the home page. There were no links to the original papers, but the website stated, “DCA promises to be a wonder drug for the treatment of cancer.”
The website also briefly explained how their “Pet-DCA” (now “Vet-DCA”) is made: “We make Pet-DCA from Dichloroacetic acid, 98 per cent. Dichloroacetic acid is synthesised by mixing the precursors and using a laser tuned to a particular frequency to drive the synthesis.” This should already make alarm bells ring, as the easiest way of making a salt is by mixing a base with the chosen acid, with no need for laser stimulation.
BuyDCA.com does not provide any real contact information, and is registered under a private domain name, whose owner cannot be traced. Why would a legitimate business want to hide all contact and owner information? Let’s go back to buyDCA.com, and carefully read their disclaimer, as it was on February 20. It says that the information provided “is for educational purposes only.” However, the website is marketing a product, and reporting the dosage to treat pets using such a product. “We are neither doctors nor veterinarians and cannot make statements about medical conditions.” Why mention doctors when talking about pets? Perhaps because “DCA can cause side effects. The most reported side effect is a peripheral neuropathy . . . Dosages of 25 mg/kg in humans was sometimes well tolerated and sometimes not, causing instances of peripheral neuropathy.” This was shown to happen in humans, not pets.
Another similar website, theDCAsite.com, has been set up to advertise for buyDCA.com. This site includes a forum containing postings of people who are not only looking to buy DCA, but even of people who have already managed to get some, and are making themselves public guinea pigs. The forum intently encourages them and follows their ‘progress’ while on a DCA cure. On a page of the DCA Chat Room hosted by this website, Heather Nordstrom, “theDCAsite Admin and Moderator,” announces that “there will be a pet/animal website where anyone can buy DCA posted soon. More information will be available as soon as possible.” All in the name of pet health.
This specific section of the forum (now removed) is dedicated to questions on the shipment of DCA. It is even more interesting since it has now been removed, though Nordstrom states in one of her posts that “there isn’t anything we have to hide.” In one of her posts, Nordstrom reveals that her step-father, the main person behind the two websites, is Jim Tassano, a pet biologist who is getting the DCA produced in China. Nordstrom works with her “step-father Jim, mother, sister, and brother at a family-owned local business here in Sonora, C.A.” In fact, Nordstrom just “deeply want[s] to help people and the planet heal.” But why does her step-father sell dubious-quality Pet-DCA at a markup of about 5,000 per cent?
Nordstrom states she belongs to “a family of biologists, working with chemists.” A simple website search reveals more about her family’s beliefs on the medical and natural sciences, through an article written by Nordstrom regarding her trip to a Tijuana alternative dentist with her step-father. This is an interesting read which was quickly removed from the web as criticism on buyDCA.com and its owners started building in the blogosphere. Nordstrom writes about her trip to Dr. Wolley’s dentist office. She says that “he even had worked for Hulda R. Clark! It was clear to me that he had many of the same beliefs that I did about the unhealthy and dangerous procedures inherent in the U.S. health system, versus the simple, natural, and non-toxic treatments that are in existence.”
Clark is a Canadian who claims that all cancers are caused by “parasites, toxins, and pollutants.” According to Clark, “all cancers are alike. They are all caused by a parasite. A single parasite! It is the human intestinal fluke. And if you kill this parasite, the cancer stops immediately.” Also, this parasite “only establishes itself in the liver of some people . . . In order to get cancer, you must have both the parasite and propyl alcohol in your body.”
For several years, Clark practiced alternative medicine at Century Nutrition, a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico. In February 2001, Mexican authorities inspected Century Nutrition and ordered it to shut down, as the clinic had never registered and was operating without a license. Clark also faced other charges in the U.S.
Is this the Hulda Clark that Nordstrom admires so profoundly? As a cancer patient, can you trust this to be scientifically sound advice? I leave the answer to you. In the meantime, the Food and Drug Association (FDA) has finally started to investigate buyDCA.com as news of this dubiously moral marketing experiment reached Canadian mainstream media.
Lessons from miracles of the past
DCA is not the first miracle drug promising to free us from cancer. There have been many in the past and there will unfortunately be many in the future. The literature and the performance of the pharmaceutical industry suggests that miracles often do not work, but the media, and people with questionable intentions and knowledge, often choose to think otherwise, convincing countless patients to forgo proven treatments to follow a more dangerous road.
In the late ‘90s, a miracle cure administered by a general doctor raised considerable media attention in Italy, such that the Ministry of Health started studies on the cure, known as the Di Bella Multitherapy (MDB). Studies showed that there was no proof of this therapy’s effectiveness, and that patients whose cancers can be treated by chemotherapy were actually doing significantly worse, especially children with leukemia, when compared to the average survival curves other cancer patients in the same category whose data was reported in a collection on cancer registries.
There are many other examples of natural or chemicallly unproven cures that were shown to be ineffective: high-dose vitamin C, hydrazine sulphate, Laetrile, and shark cartilage are only few examples. A multitude of drugs effective in the lab or small trials never get to the clinic: the reasons are many, and one of them is that individual variations play an important role in the effect of a drug, and only when testing large numbers of patients it is possible to be aware of rare, or not-so-rare, side effects and drug toxicities.
DCA is a drug with real potential, but it is being treated as the panacea to all cancers, mishandled and marketed by people with dubious ethics and medical beliefs for illegal uses disguised as an animal experimental drug, and sold to patients clinging to hopes, who might be forfeiting or compromising proper palliative therapy for an untested, and possibly dangerous chemotherapy not yet approved for use in humans.
DCA might one day make it to the market as a legitimate cancer treatment. But cancer is a variety of heterogeneous diseases triggered by non-trivial factors. Only time and proper research will be able to tell whether the fate of DCA will be that of an orphan drug, or of a generic blockbuster.