Apparently there is a viable, easy method to cure cancer that has been repeatedly tested and confirmed by Canadian scientists in Edmonton, Alberta but no companies have taken the product up because it can't be patented and is therefore unprofitable.

Canadian researchers find a simple cure for cancer, but major pharmaceutical companies are not interested.

Researchers at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada have cured cancer last week, yet there is a little ripple in the news or in TV. It is a simple technique using very basic drug. The method employs dichloroacetate, which is currently used to treat metabolic disorders. So, there is no concern of side effects or about their long term effects.

This drug doesn't require a patent, so anyone can employ it widely and cheaply compared to the costly cancer drugs produced by major pharmaceutical companies.

Canadian scientists tested this dichloroacetate (DCA) on human's cells; it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells and left the healthy cells alone. It was tested on Rats inflicted with severe tumors; their cells shrank when they were fed with water supplemented with DCA. The drug is widely available and the technique is easy to use, why the major drug companies are not involved? Or the Media interested in this find?

In human bodies there is a natural cancer fighting human cell, the mitochondria, but they need to be triggered to be effective. Scientists used to think that these mitochondria cells were damaged and thus ineffective against cancer. So they used to focus on glycolysis, which is less effective in curing cancer and more wasteful. The drug manufacturers focused on this glycolysis method to fight cancer. This DCA on the other hand doesn't rely on glycolysis instead on mitochondria; it triggers the mitochondria which in turn fights the cancer cells.

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.

Pharmaceutical companies are not investing in this research because DCA method cannot be patented, without a patent they can't make money, like they are doing now with their AIDS Patent. Since the pharmaceutical companies won't develop this, the article says other independent laboratories should start producing this drug and do more research to confirm all the above findings and produce drugs. All the groundwork can be done in collaboration with the Universities, who will be glad to assist in such research and can develop an effective drug for curing cancer.

You can access the original research for this cancer here.

This article wants to raise awareness for this study, hope some independent companies and small startup will pick up this idea and produce these drugs, because the big companies won't touch it for a long time.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Scientists_cure_cancer__but_no_one_takes_notice

Thoughts?

Edit: Also I'm aware this article is a few years old but it doesn't change the fact that no one has picked it up.

Okay, my BS monitors are going off here. Mitochondria are a structure within the cell, not a type of cell. Further, they're essentially the powerplant of the cell; if cancer patients had non-functioning mitochondria, they'd be dead long before the cancer did anything. I'm going to have to see a more reliable source on this before I believe anything.

And people wonder why I rail on about what a sick fucked up system privatized healthcare is. In a socialized healthcare system, where people come ahead of money, we'd have jumped all over this. Too bad we'd rather make money by holding people's own lives hostage until they fork up the dough for a treatment.

Owyn_Merrilin:
Okay, my BS monitors are going off here. Mitochondria are a structure within the cell, not a type of cell. Further, they're essentially the powerplant of the cell; if cancer patients had non-functioning mitochondria, they'd be dead long before the cancer did anything. I'm going to have to see a more reliable source on this before I believe anything.

Very true, this is.

Besides which, even if the pharmaceutical companies didn't like this, the media would be talking our ears off about it. This development would be most definitely in their interests, at least.

I really doubt the legitimacy of this article, I'm afraid.

/edit
Going through the comments on the article page, there are more than a few people pointing out some serious holes in this...

Ah, what a world we have come to where the paper in your pocket is deemed more important than the lives of millions by pharmaceutical companies. Well done corporation, you have once again shown how heartless you can be. Its a good thing these scientists are encouraging others to do something, but the media could still help.

AceAngel:
People, please, stop acting like you know Biology, because half of you don't know two craps of what is written there...

This paper have been proved as fact by the community and many third party supporters are angry about this fact.

Then the person who wrote the blog article didn't know what they were talking about; what I said about mitochondria was accurate.

Here's a link to the website of the university that made the actual discovery. The article that was linked was a piece of sensationalism; they're still in early trials, and in addition to this, the drug is already widely available, meaning there's no need for drug companies to invest further. Currently, it's an off label use that is being researched to become an on label use. Care to tell me where my biology fails?

Edit: Forgot to mention, according to the article I linked, the drug isn't even a cure for cancer. All it does is halt the growth, and allow other methods to kill the cells that are already there without having to worry about further growth. It's a break through, but not a cure in and of itself.

This is unbelievably awesome news, though I find it astonishing and shameful the article is 3 years old and there hasn't been hype over it.

What's the point of all the 'cure cancer' foundations if when a viable treatment is discovered they ignore it?

If the article is in fact truthful and the drug has been proven safe and effective how exactly would one go about treating a cancer with it if it's not a prescribed cancer-treatment medication? My father was just diagnosed with cancer and I'd love to see this help him.

Patrick_and_the_ricks:
Pretty sure we can cure Aids too, but a one time cure doesn't make anywhere as much cash as lifetime treatments.

No cure, but there's a vaccine in the works; it was recently proven to work on monkeys, and the next step is to make a version for human use. It's going to be a while, but there will almost definitely be a vaccine within our lifetimes.

Edit: Forgot to mention, there was a guy who was cured of aids recently, but it was a freak occurrence involving a bone marrow transplant from someone with a genetic mutation that essentially made him immune to aids. There may be a cure in that, but it's not exactly something that can be mass produced.

Source for the edit:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27683001/ns/health-aids/t/marrow-transplant-may-have-cured-mans-aids/

Chances are it's because this is most likely total bullshit.

My best friend is currently spinning in his grave.

I seriously doubt that something as monumental as the CURE FOR CANCER would just be ignored by mainstream media. Also, this article was written three years ago.

I'm calling bullshit on this one.

Matt_LRR:

Kpt._Rob:
And people wonder why I rail on about what a sick fucked up system privatized healthcare is. In a socialized healthcare system, where people come ahead of money, we'd have jumped all over this. Too bad we'd rather make money by holding people's own lives hostage until they fork up the dough for a treatment.

...Canada's healthcare system is socialized.

-m

Yes I realize that. It's kind of hard for a devoted liberal like myself to have not seen Michael Moore's documentary after all. My point was directed more towards the American capitalist system, one which I see being much slower to take up any treatment that isn't highly profitable.

Kpt._Rob:

Matt_LRR:

Kpt._Rob:
And people wonder why I rail on about what a sick fucked up system privatized healthcare is. In a socialized healthcare system, where people come ahead of money, we'd have jumped all over this. Too bad we'd rather make money by holding people's own lives hostage until they fork up the dough for a treatment.

...Canada's healthcare system is socialized.

-m

Yes I realize that. It's kind of hard for a devoted liberal like myself to have not seen Michael Moore's documentary after all. My point was directed more towards the American capitalist system, one which I see being much slower to take up any treatment that isn't highly profitable.

"America, Love it or Leave it."

OT: Now, that I've gotten my political retort out of the way... I'm questioning the legitimacy of this this article... All they'd have to do is tell a news station and they'd get it pasted all over everything.

Okay, the alarm bells went off after I saw the comments that were made 4 fucking years ago. That, and from the various comments calling this discovery as bullshit, I have a hard time believing that this is actually the break through that people want and is simply just an excuse to rally against Big Pharma.

Yassen:
Thoughts?

Edit: Also I'm aware this article is a few years old but it doesn't change the fact that no one has picked it up.

Actually, several universities have picked it up. I remember a few months ago, an area university successfully reproduced these results in tests with a particular kind of cancer. In human subjects, if I recall the e-mail correctly.

So this is being used... just on a small scale. Hopefully the repeat publications will allow doctors (rather than drug companies) to employ it anyway.