A potential anti-cancer treatment that attracted massive public interest earlier this year is to be tested on 50 people with brain tumours.
The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), disables the energy-producing mechanism in cancerous cells, although concerns remain over toxicity and side effects such as nerve damage.
Promising results from animal studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada (快猫短视频, 20 January, p 13) led to attempts by desperate cancer patients to buy DCA 鈥� a common lab chemical 鈥� online. The US Food and Drug Administration later halted sales of the unapproved drug.
Advertisement
The Canadian researchers, meanwhile, sought permission from Health Canada to carry out an authorised trial 鈥� and now they have it. 鈥淲e鈥檝e obtained human ethics approval as well, and we plan to start immediately,鈥� says lead researcher Evangelos Michelakis. The team has so far raised $800,000 in public donations to fund the trial.
鈥淲e have approval and plan to start trials of dichloroacetate in people immediately鈥�
