Cheap, Safe, Patentless Cancer Drug Discovered

PyroMosh writes "The New Scientist is reporting that researchers working at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada have discovered that an existing drug called dichloroacetate (DCA) is effective in killing cancer cells, while leaving the host's healthy cells unharmed. DCA has already been used for years to treat metabolic disorders, and is known to be fairly safe. Sounds like great news, is it too good to be true? Why is the mainstream news media failing to report on this potential breakthrough? The University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board have set up a site with more info, where you can also donate to support future clinical trials."

Comments

Peer review?

[ZombieRoboNinja]

Newscientist.com ain't exactly Science magazine. I'll wait until a real peer-reviewed journal publishes some findings before I start donating oodles of money via the oh-so-conviently-located link in the TFA.

Not an exact science

[len_p]

From what I understand the drug was designed for something and now they have found it can be used to something different. Seems like an episode of Regenesis: "let's try all the known drugs maybe one has a side effect which does what we want". In that particular episode I think they found it so let's hope it will be the case here too. Len

No mainstream news reports?

[dtfinch]

Between slashdot, digg, and google news, I must have seen a dozen reports already.

Re:Patentless

[flyingfsck]

BTW, Linux has full support for NTFS: http://www.ntfs-3g.org/

This is like 3 weeks old!

[IncInc]

Published in the New Scientist January 20 Issue

When were you protecting me?

[Grendel Drago]

I appreciate that things must have sucked for you, being shouted at and running in circles for three years. (Also, being shot at, if you were deployed.) But honestly, you were "protecting" me only in the vaguest and hand-waviest of senses. (Here's a good article about what I mean.) American soldiers are, at best, fighting to protect George Bush's fragile ego and assure that his failures can be blamed on whatever grownup has to extricate us from his mess, and at worst, are simply "gangsters for capitalism", as Smedley Butler put it.

But no, I'm not going to tell you how much I admire you because you fell for the propaganda, or because you were forced into a dirty, dangerous job. Plenty of people work dirty, dangerous jobs, and yet we're not exhorted to run around thanking our timber cutters, fishers, pilots and structural steel workers. It's jingoism, it's militarism, and it carries with it some disturbing baggage, such as the recent habit of calling the President "the Commander in Chief".

I understand your sacrifice, but you didn't do it for my freedom. I'm sorry if you thought it was all for a good reason, I really am.