Isn't a known side effect of chemotherapy spontaneous heart failure? How much is chemotherapy a "pop" again?

My guess is Jodie works as an outside consultant for glaxxowelcomesmithkline or whatever that perpetually merging pharmaceutical company is currently called.

"POSSIBLY FATAL - Cancer patients using compound that has only been tested on rats."

Well - we all know any cancer patient is a lab rat - just look at the side effects of chemo.

Hold on - I think I need to take something for my blood pressure!

I think it is great that there is this website where people can exchange information on DCA.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=7875b934-48e4-4cb4-b9d0-7be687157b10&k=81346

"I don't want my supply cut off because of some overzealous bureaucrats at Health Canada who have decided in this nanny state we live in that they know better than me what I'm supposed to be doing to myself," said the 51-year-old business owner, who has taken DCA since Feb. 14 in an effort to shrink a 25-centimetre-long tumour at the top of his pubic bone.

The man, who has done graduate work in biochemistry and microbiology, said he doesn't know when the drug effect will kick in. He is paying $1,200 every two months to have private MRI scans of his tumour, since he doesn't trust the public health-care system here. He isn't submitting his receipts for insurance purposes because he doesn't want to be tracked.

So far, he has suffered no ill effects.

"I have no concerns whatsoever," he said, noting that he's read many scientific articles about past clinical trials with DCA and is taking well below the amount given in studies.

"If you have six months left to live and doctors have told you to go home and die, what possible harm could there be in taking this?"

Oncologists will not be put out of business by DCA. You cannot take this drug on your own safely. It has a myriad of potentially serious side effects. You need an oncologist to monitor you.

From what I've been reading, the best place to get prescribed and monitored would be from your GP (familt Doctor). DCA has been used for many years to treat Lactic acidosis, which is a side effect of many chemo treatments, or so some say. Whether the dca helps my wife or not at this point is not our main concern it is the harsh chemo treatments that have been continuous since july 2004.

Many people are thinking "What have I got to loose"

RJ

"Also, because DCA has been used in both healthy people and sick patients with mitochondrial diseases, researchers already know that it is a relatively non-toxic molecule that can be immediately tested patients with cancer." http://www.depmed.ualberta.ca/dca/

Did they mention we have 4 doctors involved?!!!

My fathers cancer is too advanced for conventional treatment. According to my dad's oncologist, if everything goes right and my dad is lucky he will wake up 133 more times. That's it,end of story. Most of those 133 days he will probably be in great pain and look forward to the end. Through all this the one request that he did have was that we would donate his body to science. Even in death my father wishes to serve the greater good.

Along comes DCA. I submitted my fathers name for the Alberta study but he will be dead before they ever start treating patients. That leaves us very few choices. Does my father think it will cure him, not really, but here is a small hope that it will do some good. He is willing to try this drug that has shown little side effect in the proper dosage on the off chance that it might cure him. Any help that he can be to anyone else along the way he is happy to provide. Hence the database. If something bad happens, so be it. One thing is for sure he is going to die and that day will be very soon without any intervention.

So go ahead and write another article that makes the people on this board look like a bunch of lunatics. We are between a rock and a hard place. Until someone can say that DCA causes certian death, it is still not as much of a risk as doing nothing.

Until you are put in the situation we are, I promise you that you can't understand. I hope you never have to learn either...

"If it starts going badly, who is following you before it gets out of control? By the time you realize your liver is failing, you're in big trouble," Shanner said.
EXCUSE ME? Did Andrea in quoting Shanner do any objective research, or due diligence into the article before it was written, or was it put together in the haste of publishing deadlines and in the interest of jumping on the bandwagon of the newspaper subject/flavour of the last few days? (Some of the people using DCA have done exhaustive in depth research, and are making informed and personal choices).

"DCA has been known to cause peripheral neuropathy in humans -- reversible damage to peripheral nerves that causes imbalance and finger numbness -- as well as low sperm counts in animal tests"
And I would ask,does conventional cancer treatment have -0- side effects? Any or all reversible?

I myself am finding it difficult as a concerned non-participant of DCA treatment, not to get worked up about some of the content of news articles written over the past few days referred to in these posts. The only good thing is - good or bad press, one can only hope it brings attention and aggressive action as an alternative to Pharmaceutical company driven drug$, treatment$, & the current dollar driven health care(?)system available for those afflicted with any form of cancer.
Having said that, I must give heartfelt thanks to those Docs,researchers,and caregivers that are truly interested in helping all,from young to old alike, suffering from any form of cancer.

DYING PATIENT WARY OF SUSPECT CANCER REMEDY

Decides to trust doctor's advice and avoid drug

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=aca3997c-68c9-4486-9105-ddf77f85b743&k=4756

DCA and Cancer Patients

Linda.Webster@capitalhealth.ca

Hi to everyone,

Please be informed that the University of Alberta site for DCA has been updated with a personal letter from myself. Stay tuned for continuing updates

http://www.depmed.ualberta.ca/dca

Sincerely

Dr. E. Michelakis
University of Alberta

The University of Alberta’s DCA Research Team is set to launch clinical trials on humans in the spring of 2007 pending government approval. Knowing that thousands of cancer patients die weekly while waiting for a cure, Dr. Michelakis and his team are working at accelerated speed, condensing research that usually takes years into months. Fundraisers at the University of Alberta are determined to raise the money to allow this next phase of research to begin. Once Health Canada grants formal approval, the University of Alberta’s Research Team will begin testing DCA on patients living with cancer. Results with regards to the safety and efficacy of treatment should be known late this year.

“If there were a magic bullet, though, it might be something like dichloroacetate, or DCA…”
Newsweek, January 23, 2007

(1) We are working on a database for inputting information on those folks who are taking DCA.

(2) About the article, we were sent this link instead of the one you mentioned above: http://www.canada.com/topics/bodyandhealth/story.html?id=22ac1a32-4a50-406b-8f24-ff50422665cb&k=54715

Heather, Forum Moderator

Patients 'desperate' for drugs buying medicine intended for animals.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2007/03/19/3782214-sun.html

If there ever was a cure for cancer, do you think that they would really let us know? I don't.

My website in program.
http://janet-mary-brown.memory-of.com/

I'm sooo sorry for the loss of your mom... My heart goes out to you and your family.

Take care, hugs,
Sandra

Your family and you are in my thoughts. I am glad your mother lived well beyond the doctor's forecast, good for her! Thank you for being a part of our forum here. Please take care of yourself and feel free to stay in touch.

Heather, Forum Moderator