In February, Jim Tassano and his wife Ilene set up , a chemical that has shown promise as an anti-cancer drug in animal studies. DCA has never been tested in human cancer patients and is not approved as a drug. That didn鈥檛 stop Tassano joining forces with chemist Joseph Ryan (below, right) to make DCA and sell it online. Although the drug was ostensibly sold to treat animals, more than 2000 people bought it for themselves, some then posting their experiences on a sister website. In July, the US Food and Drug Administration ordered Tassano to stop selling DCA. Linda Geddes asked him if he still thinks the risks of selling an untested drug were justified.
How did you become interested in DCA?
My father had cancer and it made me feel kind of helpless. He would get chemotherapy and it would annihilate him. It was terrible to watch. I have had an interest in cancer since then.
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Recently I was reading news articles on DCA and I realised that it was a really big deal. All the coverage said DCA had the potential to be a super cancer treatment, but that it may never come out. This was because it couldn鈥檛 be patented and so it wouldn鈥檛 be worthwhile for drug companies to fund clinical trials. We realised the only way this was going to become available was to do it ourselves.
Are you surprised by the FDA鈥檚 response?
A little, yes. There was no false advertising 鈥� the only thing the FDA could really get us for was the intent to sell it to humans. But the site said it wasn鈥檛 for human consumption. I thought the FDA would tell us to modify the website. Instead, they said that if we continued to sell DCA we could be charged with a felony. I don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 a battle for me to fight.
What feedback have you received from people who bought DCA from you?
A lot of people say their symptoms have improved but we鈥檝e also seen cancers that don鈥檛 respond at all. Sarcomas 鈥� cancers of supportive tissue such as bone, muscle and fat 鈥� don鈥檛 seem to respond to DCA but we鈥檝e had a good response with lymphomas.
The best responses were with glioblastoma, or brain cancer. One guy was on DCA for five weeks, during which he says his tumour shrank by half. He was also taking the cancer drug Avastin, and didn鈥檛 tell his doctor about the DCA. We don鈥檛 know which drug it was, or if it was both together but it seemed to work.
Don鈥檛 you think it鈥檚 necessary to do clinical trials to prove that DCA works?
Do clinical trials, but not at the cost of denying people their right to live. The average time for FDA approval is seven years, and the cost can exceed $1 billion. DCA is unpatentable, so it will go nowhere without a company to champion it.
DCA should be allowed now for use by the terminally ill. Its safety and dosage are well established from clinical trials with other diseases. Our experience has shown that people can self-medicate with DCA safely. The people taking it were incredibly responsible. They read the scientific literature, took meticulous notes and collected a huge amount of data.
But you鈥檙e not a physician.
No, and I鈥檝e never pretended to be one, but people wanted to try DCA. I answered their questions because I thought I had a responsibility to do so.
How would you feel if people鈥檚 health worsened after taking DCA bought from your website?
I wouldn鈥檛 feel good about it, but I think that the action by the FDA will hasten the deaths of a great many people around the world.
When 快猫短视频 ran a story about you in March, you said you hadn鈥檛 made any profits from the sale of DCA. Has that changed?
We have now covered our expenses but it has not paid very well. Financially, I鈥檇 have been better off sticking to my pest control business.
What would you like to see happen now?
DCA was just the beginning. There are many other chemicals that have been used in trials for cancer, but won鈥檛 get approved because they can鈥檛 be patented. A lot of people will suffer because of a clampdown on what I consider to be safe and affordable cancer therapies that are beyond the FDA鈥檚 realm. We need to get these drugs to patients, but there will have to be some changes to allow that to happen. 鈥�
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Jim Tassano is a biology graduate from the University of California, Berkeley. He set up in February to provide information about the chemical DCA and later sold the drug through a related site for use in animals. In July, the US Food and Drug Administration shut down that site. He also runs a pest control business.
