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School Survival > News >
Scientists Cure Cancer
Scientists may have cured cancer last week.
Yep.
So, why haven't the media picked up on it?
Here's the deal. Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada found a cheap and easy to produce drug that kills almost all cancers. The drug is dichloroacetate, and since it is already used to treat metabolic disorders, we know it should be no problem to use it for other purposes.
Doesn't this sound like the kind of news you see on the front page of every paper?
The drug also has no patent, which means it could be produced for bargain basement prices in comparison to what drug companies research and develop.
Scientists tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body where it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but left healthy cells alone. Rats plump with tumors shrank when they were fed water supplemented with DCA.
Again, this seems like it should be at the top of the nightly news, right?
Cancer cells don't use the little power stations found in most human cells - the mitochondria. Instead, they use glycolysis, which is less effective and more wasteful.
Doctors have long believed the reason for this is because the mitochondria were damaged somehow. But, it turns out the mitochondria were just dormant, and DCA starts them back up again.
The side effect of this is it also reactivates a process called apoptosis. You see, mitochondria contain an all-too-important self-destruct button that can't be pressed in cancer cells. Without it, tumors grow larger as cells refuse to be extinguished. Fully functioning mitochondria, thanks to DCA, can once again die.
With glycolysis turned off, the body produces less lactic acid, so the bad tissue around cancer cells doesn't break down and seed new tumors.
Here's the big catch. Pharmaceutical companies probably won't invest in research into DCA because they won't profit from it. It's easy to make, unpatented and could be added to drinking water. Imagine, Gatorade with cancer control.
So, the groundwork will have to be done at universities and independently funded laboratories. But, how are they supposed to drum up support if the media aren't even talking about it?
All I can do is write this and hope Google News picks it up. In the meantime, tell everyone you know and do your own research.
Links to more info about this
http://www.economist.com/scien...
http://www.newscientist.com/ar...
http://scienceblogs.com/insole...
http://www.depmed.ualberta.ca/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...
Posted by: Zherneboh
Source Article
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Posted in: News on January 31, 2007 @ 12:00 AM
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I fucking hate the government, suuuure let people die cause you don't make a fucking profit. I'd be angry but I don't have the proper emoticon D:<
Another point about not finding a cancer cure too soon. Many pharmaceutical companies are delaying the absolute cure for cancer because they make money off of new drugs found in the Amazonian rainforest. Sure, it is bad to let people die for no profit, but a lot of the protection of the rainforest comes from these companies. Although, we should just cure cancer right now, and then protect the rainforest at the same time shouldn't we?
I love how important society says it is to cure cancer, but then a cure does show up and no one gives a shit cause they can't get money off it. Fucking assholes.
I told all my friends about this and I'm posting a question about it on Yahoo answers