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John A
Member since Mar-18-07
117 posts		 Jun-01-07, 12:14 PM (PST)
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5. "RE: Well I eventually started 2007-05-30"
In response to message #0
 
   >Yesterday I started using DCA in earnest. I thought I would
>report what I find weekly and, as I had some interesting
>symptomatic experiences already, I'd put those down now.
>
>Background
>==========
>I have advanced colorectal which was diagnosed 4 years ago.
>I've had a wide variety of treatment surgery (good) RFA
>(good) chemotherapy with 7 different agents in different
>combos (Erbitux, Oxaliplatin, Irinotecan, MMC, Capecitabine,
>UFT, Raltitrexed - you have these everywhere just the names
>used vary by country somewhat) - all nasty - and synchronous
>chemo with radiotherapy (ERbitux) (good).
>
>I have blood tests most weeks and imaging in phase with
>chemo cycles between 4 & 8 weeks. I have been doing some
>original research into chemo related clotting in cancer
>patients using a TEG machine if anyone wants to know about
>that (really distinct correlation between Irinotecan and
>complete blockade of aspirin / clopidogrel management of
>platelet clotting. LMWH carries on working).
>
>After a couple of CRs I now have extensive mets in lung
>liver and abdomen. These are still managed by chemotherapy
>but there isn't going to be another CR. I have therefore
>modified my therapy to allow it when I don't have other
>things I want to do and which it would interfere with.
>Typically this means doing cytotoxic chemo every 4-5 weeks
>rather than every 3. Next imaging will tell how this is
>working (only medium I suspect).
>
>Why DCA?
>=======
>Well, I've just had a holiday from cytotoxic chemo while we
>dealt with an endobronchial excursion with radiotherapy and
>Erbitux. I've only had 1 Raltitrexed / Irinotecan treatment
>in 3 months although I have had 7 Erbitux treatments. I had
>some work to do and I put off restarting. This felt pretty
>good till the last 10 days when I started to get signs my
>liver is active again.
>
>Earlier in the year I used MMC instead of Irinotecan and it
>cleaned my liver out very well. Clearly that holiday is
>over and I need to do another shot of it. You can only have
>56mgs of MMC else your kidneys die and I've had 28 already
>so I was holding this in reserve in case I needed it again.
>There isn't an obvious substitute so when I've used up the
>next two shots thats it for the liver as Irinotecan is less
>effective with my liver mets.
>
>As the oncologists are rapidly going into “your going to
>die” mode I started to look for therapies to improve the
>odds that could be tried alongside my current chemo. I
>found DCA and also something called Kinedac (Epalrestat) a
>drug used in Japan for the management of diabetic neuropathy
>(which chemo kicks me into). Kinedac is an Aldose Reductase
>inhibitor and it has been shown that where Aldose Reductase
>(an enzyme) is inhibited a broad range of human colorectal
>tumours cells won’t grow in mice. Got to be worth trying
>too.
>
>Why now?
>=======
>Turns out I am less adventurous than I thought and reluctant
>to start mixing cocktails of chemo with unknown effects.
>Even though I had supplies of both drugs enough for a 90 day
>trial I put off beginning. Then my liver blew up giving me
>pain, fatigue and brain fade. It was sufficiently severe I
>didn’t want to wait even till Friday when my next chemo is
>scheduled to treat it.
>
>So, in the “kill or cure” spirit I made up 10mg/kg DCA and
>chugged it through the day. Today 12.5mg/kg. No other
>supplements day 1 but 4gms Vit C day 2 and 100mg thiamine
>and 200mgms silymarin.
>
>Good results.
>============
>Day one it may have increased hepatic discomfort (which is
>presumably inflammation and swelling causing capsular
>pressure as well as colecystitis). But it also acted as a
>diuretic and I pissed about 1.5 kgs extra fluid away.
>Slightly fatigued, slight optical effects. Felt slightly
>improved by sleep-time – less sore less grumpy - but brain
>still addled.
>
>Day two woke feeling much better. Pain resolved almost
>completely, felt quite well and calm. Brain still not 100%
>but better than daytime TV… Dosed with 1gm Vit C every chug
>of DCA – mixed they taste weird. Fatigue increased. No
>optical effects, mood and comfort now normal. Brain not
>perfect but much much clearer.
>
>Analysis: I don’t know what is going on but subjectively its
>good. Reducing hepatic inflammation and enabling the fluid
>to drain off probably dealt with a lot of the pain and
>derived issues. Fixing my mood and my mind pays for all.
>
>Can’t say if its killing tumour cells – maybe my blood tests
>tomorrow will show something interesting. I’ll post them.
>I will have CT imaging next week to give a baseline for the
>next 6 weeks.
>
>I have Erbitux (big dose) Irinotecan / Raltitrexed tomorrow.
> I probably won’t do DCA again till Saturday. Easier to
>manage any issues by stopping drinking than by stopping an
>infusion.
>
>Hope its of interest.
>
>Kind regards - Ian

Hello Ian,

I see that you are a great fighter and survivor and I feel somewhat humbled to be making suggestions but if you wish to consider them and explore the rationale I would be pleased to be of assistance.

I would ask you to consider using a Proton Pump Inhibitor such as Omeprazole 40mg per day to increase the effectiveness of your Chemotherapy agents including DCA

The following three references will explain the rationale for this approach.

1. "Effect of Proton Pump Inhibitor Pretreatment on Resistance of Solid Tumors to Cytotoxic Drugs" Francesca Luciani et al
Journal of the National Cancer Institute Vol 96. No 22 November 17 2004.

2. "Selective Induction of Apoptosis with Proton Pump Inhibitor in Gastric Cancer Cells" Marie et al. Clinical Cancer Research. Vol 10 8687-8696 December 15 2004.

3." overcoming Physiologic Barriers to Cancer Treatment by Molecularly Targeting the Tumor Microenvironment "
Rob Cairns et al. Molecular Cancer Research 4:61-70 (2006)

Reference 3 also includes additional approaches for consideration.


I will try and email you the papers.


Best Regards

John A.
Research Chemist

John A


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