I've actually read a bit into this article and looked further into the subject of DCA as a possible cure for cancer. Here's the skinny, for those of you confused on why nobody's picked up on this yet and tried to reap a massive profit.
The main reason why we don't just pump all of our cancer patients full of dichloroacetate is because the application of DCA as a cure for cancer has yet to be fully explored. While DCA is recognized as a cure for metabolic syndromes, its application as a cure for cancer is still relatively new and unexplored. Truth be told, DCA has only recently passed its clinical trials, and cancer research tends to move slowly for various reasons. Shortly after the initial laboratory results went out, there were also a lot of people who tried to hawk off DCA as a "miracle cure" without fully knowing its effects, to the same degree as the old school snake oil practitioners of earlier times.
And while laboratory results were very promising, one of the five patients in DCA's clinical trial actually died. Of course, these trials were performed with DCA acting as a supplement, rather than the main part of the regimen. The five patients received DCA along with standard cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, and aside from the one unfortunate case, the other four patients who were treated with DCA supplements showed significant improvement. While there is a great deal of promise for DCA, as the lab and clinical results have shown, there's no clear evidence as to whether it really is the "miracle cure for cancer" that everyone on the internet has been purporting it to be. They've yet to run trials with DCA itself as the treatment, and that's what needs to happen before we see it in full application.
Personally, I'm hopeful, because it means that we'll get to possibly see the eradication of cancer within our lifetimes. But, we've still got a few years ahead of us. Here's a link to another article giving a bit more detail on the issue. It's kind of long and a little complicated, but it really does help to shed light on the subject. http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/05/dichloroacetate_dca_and_cancer_deja_vu_a.php
The main reason why we don't just pump all of our cancer patients full of dichloroacetate is because the application of DCA as a cure for cancer has yet to be fully explored. While DCA is recognized as a cure for metabolic syndromes, its application as a cure for cancer is still relatively new and unexplored. Truth be told, DCA has only recently passed its clinical trials, and cancer research tends to move slowly for various reasons. Shortly after the initial laboratory results went out, there were also a lot of people who tried to hawk off DCA as a "miracle cure" without fully knowing its effects, to the same degree as the old school snake oil practitioners of earlier times.
And while laboratory results were very promising, one of the five patients in DCA's clinical trial actually died. Of course, these trials were performed with DCA acting as a supplement, rather than the main part of the regimen. The five patients received DCA along with standard cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, and aside from the one unfortunate case, the other four patients who were treated with DCA supplements showed significant improvement. While there is a great deal of promise for DCA, as the lab and clinical results have shown, there's no clear evidence as to whether it really is the "miracle cure for cancer" that everyone on the internet has been purporting it to be. They've yet to run trials with DCA itself as the treatment, and that's what needs to happen before we see it in full application.
Personally, I'm hopeful, because it means that we'll get to possibly see the eradication of cancer within our lifetimes. But, we've still got a few years ahead of us. Here's a link to another article giving a bit more detail on the issue. It's kind of long and a little complicated, but it really does help to shed light on the subject. http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/05/dichloroacetate_dca_and_cancer_deja_vu_a.php
