DCA (Dichloroacetate) Therapy

Medicor Cancer Centres was the first cancer clinic in North America to begin prescribing DCA "off label" to cancer patients under the full supervision of a medical team. We have consulted with the relevant regulatory bodies in Canada and are following their guidelines and policies. We would like to thank everyone who has expressed an interest in DCA therapy. We appreciate your feedback and encouragement. We would also like to acknowledge and extend a special thanks to two of our patients who brought DCA to our attention, and motivated us to begin DCA treatments.

Background
In 2007 it was discovered that the drug DCA (dichloroacetate sodium) induced the death of human breast, lung and brain cancer cells that were implanted into rats, while being non-toxic to healthy cells. This research was published in Cancer Cell, 11, 37–51, January 2007. DCA has been found to kill cancer cells by a newly discovered mechanism that appears to be common to several types of cancer. DCA works by turning on the natural cell suicide system which is suppressed in cancerous cells, thus allowing them to die on their own. It also alters the cancer cell's use of glucose, starving the cell of energy.

Newer research shows that DCA also kills many other types of cancer cells, and can boost the cancer-killing effects of radiation. The first formal human cancer research using DCA was published in May 2010. It confirmed that DCA is an effective anti-cancer drug for treating glioblastoma patients (Metabolic Modulation of Glioblastoma with Dichloroacetate, Science Translational Medicine, Vol 2, Issue 31).

Further research to determine how well DCA works against various cancers within the human body is ongoing and can be viewed here.

Observational DCA Data
For the first time in the world, on Dec 7, 2007 we publicly shared our observational data from the treatment of 118 cancer patients with DCA. We updated our data in 2009 from treating over 347 patients. This can be found here. As of Oct 2011, we have treated over 800 cancer patients with DCA, the most of any center in the world. Since clinical trial data is now emerging, we are no longer collecting observational data. Instead, we are focusing our efforts on publishing our findings in reputable peer-reviewed medical journals. Our first publication is: "Use of Oral Dichloroacetate for Palliation of Leg Pain Arising from Metastatic Poorly Differentiated Carcinoma: A Case Report." This can be viewed here.

For further details about DCA use as a cancer therapy, please see our DCA FAQ page.

What can you do to help make DCA an accepted cancer treatment? Click to an online petition.