DCA (Sodium Dichloroacetate)

Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, conducted the studies which were based on the idea that DCA might be able to “repair” the defective mitochondria of cancer cells, more specifically in the area where glucose is converted into energy through a process called glycolosis, and cause “programed cell death.”

This programmed cell death is something that happens to normal cells regularly, but not to cancer cells because the abnormal mitochondria appears to keep cancer cells alive. Because sodium dichloroacetate can affect an important enzyme within the mitochondria, the researchers theorized it might also help to normalize the mitochondria in the cancer cell thereby rendering it noncancerous.

His preliminary research was published in the January 2007 issue of Cancer Cell, (you can link to the PDF with the link provided below)  which indicated that rats given DCA-enhanced water experienced much slower tumor growth than rats that were not given this type of water. The “Cancer Cell” study found that dichloroacetate effectively kills brain, breast and lung cancer cells. Furthermore, breast cancer cells did not spread as much in the rats that were given this substance, and mild to moderate invasive endometrial cancer cells were more prone to die off when exposed to the dichloroacetate.

These results received extensive media attention, beginning with an article in New Scientist titled “Cheap, ‘safe’ drug kills most cancers.” Subsequently, the American Cancer Society and other medical organizations began receiving a large volume of public interest and questions regarding DCA. Clinical trials are ongoing in the USA and Canada.

Several publications demonstrate that DCA works in a variety of cancers. These include human studies / case reports and lab studies (rat and in vitro). The cancer types studied so far are: colon, breast, prostate, ovarian, brain (neuroblastoma), brain (glioblastoma), lung (carcinoid), cervix, uterus (endometrial), lymphoma (non-Hodgkin’s), and cancers of unknown primary.

How to obtain DCA

There are several ways to obtain DCA since it has been used to treat metabolic diseases in children.

• Your Naturopathic Doctor can prescribe it to be used “off label” allowing you to get the pharmaceutical grade DCA from your local pharmacy.  Your insurance may not cover it as you are not using it for a condition that it has been approved for, but it is inexpensive since the patent on this product expired many years ago.
• Other people have been able to obtain this by participating in clinical trials with DCA.
• From clinics that offer DCA therapy. One that I am aware of at this time is  The Medicor Cancer Center in Toronto Canada
• It is not recommended to purchase from online vendors as some suppliers are selling industrial or lab-grade sodium dichloroacetate, which is not manufactured with the same quality standards as the pharmaceutical-grade form and may contain harmful chemical  additives.
• Never buy or use dichloroacetic acid which is a very different product as it will burn tissues even when it is diluted.