DCA On The Way

Thanks to My Special Friend, María, good news landed in My inbox: The clinical trials for dichloracetate (DCA) are beginning in Canada.

I wrote about this back in January, 2007, about how researchers at the University of Alberta discovered that DCA was extremely effective at "de-zombifying" the mitochondria of cancer cells, in effect, making them very vulnerable to radio- and chemotherapy. Basically, DCA makes cancer cells "live" so that treatment can kill them much more easily.

The repercussions are staggering on three levels:

1) Enhanced treatment of a wide range of cancers, including those cases where tumors are too close to delicate tissues for surgery.

2) Substantial decreases in medical costs and side-effects for patients.

3) DCA is so inexpensive it can be produced for as little as $2.00 a dose; it is a generic chemical that is very easy to manufacture to medical quality.

And as explained before, therein lies the rub: No pharmaceutical company would touch DCA because there's no true profit margin in developing it. I postulated that Puerto Rico could offer to put up the $600-$700 million needed to run the clinical trials, making of it Our version of the U.S.'s Lunar Landing project. A gift to the world, I called it.

A gift We never even bothered to consider giving.

My voice was too small, too insignificant to make this gift a reality. But think of this: The Canadian researchers are moving ahead although their entire budget so far is a little over $800,000. In other words, they are proceeding despite having barely 0.1% of the needed funding.

One-tenth of one percent.

Many people say scientists lack faith, but what other concept applies to this kind of effort? In their journey of a thousand miles, they have decidedly taken a first step. And there is no doubt--there can be no doubt--that they are doing so because they absolutely believe the DCA clinical trials are the right thing to do.

Conviction. Faith. Belief. Determination. Courage. Inspiration.

How I wish those words were about Us, rather than Canada. Maybe they still can be. I sure hope they can be.


The Jenius Has Spoken.


Postscript: I encountered this story on how private citizens in the Alberta area are giving money to help the funding of these clinical trials. Nothing We couldn't do if We chose to.