Endometriosis is never just a physical condition. It is a daily negotiation between the body and the mind – a long, winding challenge that shapes how a woman moves, works, loves, and shows up in her life. The pain is real, but so is the emotional weight that comes with it, a burden that often remains invisible even to the people who care most.

Many women describe endometriosis as a constant presence – not always loud, but always there. It shadows plans, interrupts routines, and forces a level of vigilance that can be emotionally draining. While the world may see a woman going about her day, she may be carrying discomfort and uncertainty that no one else can detect. That gap – between how she feels and how she is perceived – can quietly erode her sense of stability and control.

The Toll of Chronic Pain

Chronic pain isn’t simply a symptom of endometriosis; it becomes a landscape women learn to navigate. It may shift from sharp to dull, sudden to lingering, predictable to completely disruptive – but its psychological imprint is constant. When pain becomes a daily companion, anxiety often follows: fears of the next flare, fears of being dismissed, fears that life may never return to what it once was.

Over time, this unrelenting uncertainty can lead to fatigue, irritability, depression, and a profound sense of isolation. Many women describe feeling as though they’re engaged in an invisible battle – one that demands strength on both the physical and emotional fronts.

How Hormonal Treatments Affect Emotional Well-Being

Hormonal therapies are often the first line of treatment, but they come with emotional costs. Birth control pills, progestins, and GnRH agonists may reduce symptoms, yet their side effects – mood swings, irritability, brain fog, and depressive feelings – can be destabilizing.

For a woman who is already coping with chronic pain, these emotional shifts can feel like another loss: the loss of her usual mood, her sense of self, or her ability to trust her own emotional landscape. Treatment can become its own burden, adding new challenges to an already heavy load.

Fertility Struggles: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hard Decisions

Up to half of women with endometriosis experience fertility challenges, and this reality carries an emotional weight all its own. The hope of conceiving often becomes intertwined with grief, fear, guilt, and the pressure of time. Fertility treatments – with their cycles of anticipation and heartbreak – add further strain to an already overwhelming condition.

Women face decisions that feel deeply personal and emotionally charged:

• surgery that may help fertility but risks recurrence,
• IVF cycles that stretch finances and emotional reserves,
• or living with the painful uncertainty of not knowing what comes next.

The emotional burden goes beyond the ability to conceive – it affects identity, dreams for the future, and the sense of what life was supposed to look like.

Surgery: Relief, Recurrence, and the Emotional Rollercoaster

Surgery can bring profound relief – but for many, it is temporary. Symptoms may fade for months or years, only to slowly return. This cycle of hope, healing, and recurrence can take a significant emotional toll. Each procedure carries both promise and fear: What if this is my last option? What if it doesn’t help this time?

More invasive surgeries, such as hysterectomy, bring their own form of grief – not just for the physical recovery, but for the loss of fertility, the finality of the decision, and the emotional adjustment that follows.

The Hidden Toll of Long-Term Pain Medication

For many women, NSAIDs are the only accessible means of day-to-day survival. But reliance on them brings a different kind of unease:

• fears of long-term stomach irritation,
• concerns about kidney health,
• and frustration at needing medication simply to get through the day.

This reliance can create a feeling of being caught between two difficult realities: the pain of endometriosis and the consequences of its treatments. It is an emotional tension that is rarely acknowledged but deeply felt.

The Psychological Reality: Women Need More Than Symptom Control

Endometriosis is not just a gynecological disorder – it is a whole-life condition. The exhaustion, the uncertainty, the emotional aftermath of delayed diagnosis, the strain of treatment decisions, and the ongoing fight to be believed all take a cumulative toll.

Women need – and deserve – care that acknowledges both body and mind. True support includes:

• pain management that goes beyond temporary fixes,
• access to mental health resources,
• fertility counselling grounded in compassion,
• and medical care that validates rather than dismisses lived experience.

Endometriosis treatment must evolve not only scientifically, but holistically. The emotional wounds are real – and healing them is part of the treatment.

A Way Forward: Quiet Hope, Real Possibility

Endometriosis is undeniably difficult, but the story no longer ends with limitation. More women are finding validation, community, and care options that go beyond hormones and surgery. Research is finally expanding into the deeper biology of the disease, opening pathways to gentler, more personalized treatments.

Hope may arrive quietly, but it is growing – in science, in shared stories, and in the resilience of women who refuse to be overlooked. 

If you would like to read a true, documented story in which a woman shares her journey in battling endometriosis using unconventional self-treatment, continue reading here.

“Endometriosis may shape the journey, but it will never define the woman.”

The post Endometriosis and Its Psychological Impact on Women appeared first on DCA Guide.

When treatment choices narrow, hope often arrives in small, careful steps. That’s how she describes the beginning: a young woman with endometriosis, years into pain that reshaped her days and bent her life around it. Hormonal therapies had left her flat or volatile. Surgery brought two brilliant years of relief—then the familiar ache returned, spreading from pelvis to back and down her legs like a tide she couldn’t turn.

She learned about Sodium dichloroacetate (DCA) from a clinical trial exploring a non-hormonal option for endometriosis. It wasn’t available through her doctors; it isn’t licensed for this use. So she read, asked questions, accepted that this would be a self-funded experiment, and set some guardrails: track symptoms daily, start low, add protective supplements, monitor for side effects, and be honest about what she found. “This isn’t medical advice,” she says. “It’s my diary.”

• Dose: 333 mg/day for Weeks 1–2 (split morning and evening), one week off, then 333 mg twice daily (Week 4–5).
• Supplements: Alpha-lipoic acid 600 mg daily, benfotiamine (fat-soluble B1) daily, acetyl-L-carnitine 500 mg twice daily.
• Tracking: a simple spreadsheet logging pain (0–10), fatigue, bleeding, mood, and medications—with graphs to show patterns over months.

The process took patience and consistency, but her focus remained on steady improvement rather than perfection.

Week 1 -A Cautious Beginning

She started on a “half dose.” Two small capsules divided the day. No dizziness, no stomach upset, no pins-and-needles. “I felt exactly the same,” she says—except that her baseline heading into the week was bad. Period due any day. Pain rising from dull, always-there pressure to a 9 out of 10, the kind that folds you into a ball and steals your breath.

Nothing made the first days easier; she didn’t expect it to. But the medication itself didn’t add anything unpleasant. That mattered. After years of hormonal treatments that fogged her mind or jerked her mood around, taking something that was not hormonal felt like a small victory—one pill that didn’t also come with apology.

She marked the graph: high pain, high fatigue, heavy bleed. The familiar storm. She went to bed early, took painkillers as needed, and reminded herself that experiments start slowly. “No adverse effects,” she wrote that Friday. “Still me.”

Week 2 -A Flicker of Change

Half dose continued. The data points drifted lower.

There were pockets of relief—hours where pain slid to a 1 or 2, an almost unimaginable number for someone whose scale rarely touched zero. She noticed evenings felt easier. She didn’t collapse on the sofa after work. The nap she usually needed to survive the night simply… wasn’t needed. Was this a good month or a good medicine? She refused to declare victory. Endometriosis teaches humility. But she allowed herself to be quietly encouraged.

The practical challenges were oddly grounding. Each capsule contained the full 333 mg, so to split the dose she opened them, tipped half into a spare shell, and kept going. “Fiddly,” she called it. Not a reason to stop.

She kept reading about potential side effects—peripheral neuropathy, tremor—and kept checking in with her body. Nothing. She also kept up the supplements, suspecting they might be part of why she felt steady. Her tracker graph—a simple line—began to whisper possibility.

At the end of Week 2 the plan called for a pause. Two weeks on, one week off. She was nervous. If she stopped and the pain roared back, would that prove DCA was helping—or simply prove that endometriosis is fickle? “I don’t want to give up feeling better,” she admitted. But she wanted to run a clean experiment even more.

Week 3 -The Week Off

This is the part that surprised her: nothing terrible happened.

She stayed on the supplements but took no DCA. Pain remained manageable; she didn’t need the stronger painkillers she once rationed like rare currency. Fatigue wobbled—winter has a way of dimming the edges—but not in the grinding, bone-deep way she knew too well. “I definitely feel better,” she wrote, then immediately qualified it: maybe chance, maybe cycle variability.

To keep herself honest, she set a clear benchmark. At three months, she’d compare the average of her daily pain scores from before DCA with the three months on this regimen. Not vibes—numbers. Not just a story—evidence she could take to a doctor and say, “Here is what changed for me.”

She also received MRI results from earlier in the season: polycystic ovaries, endometriomas again. It was sobering but not shocking. Endometriosis can be stubborn even when symptoms gradually decline. If imaging showed disease, but her life improved, what then? Would she still choose surgery? For the first time in months, the answer wasn’t automatic.

“Next week I go to full dose,” she wrote. “Everything crossed.”

Week 4 -Higher Dose, Clearer Picture

She restarted at 333 mg twice daily. Still no side effects. The body, though, had opinions.

Around mid-week—roughly a week before her expected period—her sciatic pain flared. That pain isn’t mysterious; surgeons once found endometriosis on her sciatic nerve. Sciatica arrived like a persistent knock: not crippling, but relentless. 

She had a few crampy afternoons and a couple of lower back days. Pain crept up, but not to its old, sweeping dominance. What didn’t arrive was the familiar radiation down the legs—the “I did a brutal leg-day workout” ache that made stairs a calculation. That was gone, and had been for weeks. She noticed she could go about chores without planning recovery.

This is the complexity anyone with endometriosis will recognise: improvement in one realm, a stubborn holdout in another. She noted it. She kept going. And she made a mental note to reconsider dosing cadence after the 12-week trial—perhaps five days on, two off would smooth these mid-cycle bumps. For now, she would stay faithful to the original plan so the data meant something.

Week 5 -When Relief Became Real

Her period arrived on time. No hormonal drug would do that, she thought—this is simply her biology on display. She braced herself for the usual routine: bed, heat packs, maximum-strength analgesia, the sense that the world had narrowed to a pain tunnel.

But the day went differently.

She had cramps—local, recognisable, the sort most people mean when they say “period pain.” No radiating streaks to the knees or diaphragm. No whole-pelvis siege. A few hours climbed to a 3 out of 10; some hours drifted toward zero, a number she didn’t trust enough to write down but felt nonetheless. She worked. She shopped for groceries. She went out with her partner and said, surprised, “I’m on my period.” He smiled the relieved smile of someone who has also lived inside this illness.

The bleeding was very heavy—“ridiculously heavy,” she says—but the clots that usually accompany her cycles were scarce. She made a pragmatic adjustment: extra vigilance with pads and timing, because without the constant pain she could actually forget she was bleeding.

If Week 2 had hinted and Week 3 had reassured, Week 5 drew a clear line. “I can finally say this isn’t just a good month,” she wrote. “DCA is making a difference.” At five weeks she still had no side effects. Her mood felt stable, her energy higher. She could do ordinary things in an ordinary way. For someone with endometriosis, that is not ordinary at all.

She remains careful. This is one person, one body, one set of choices. She can’t promise anyone else this path, and she won’t. But she can offer the one thing patients trust even as they weigh the evidence: a detailed account of what changed and how.

Small Things That Made a Big Difference

• A simple tracker. A basic spreadsheet—pain, fatigue, bleed days, medications—turned feelings into patterns. The graph helped her speak to doctors without defensiveness: “Here’s three months before; here’s three months after.”
  
• Consistent supplements. She suspects the alpha-lipoic acid, benfotiamine and acetyl-L-carnitine cycles might be why she hasn’t felt any neurological or gastrointestinal side effects. She kept them steady even on off-weeks.
  
• A dosing rhythm. She followed a “two weeks on, one week off” cycle before moving to a full daily dose. Over time, she decided to try a “five days on, two days off” approach, hoping it would help manage the pre-period pain spikes more effectively.

From what we’ve observed, that five-on, two-off rhythm often provides steadier results and a wider safety margin for women using DCA to manage endometriosis symptoms.

• Support. A teenage son who steps in. A partner who cheers the small wins. Friends who don’t minimise the bad days. None of these treat endometriosis, but all of them treat the person who has it.

What Didn’t Change -and Still Matters

Her body still carries the marks of endometriosis. The scans haven’t cleared, and new cysts sometimes appear like echoes of an old song. Yet her days feel different. Pain no longer owns the mornings. Fatigue no longer writes the script. Surgery is still on the table, but so is something she hasn’t had in years—choice. She can pause, assess, and move forward on her own terms.

Five weeks, after all, is a brief moment in the long history of this disease. Perhaps the deeper healing—the shrinking and softening of lesions, the quieting of inflammation—simply needs more time. For now, she’s content to wait, to keep observing, and to let her body show what it can do given the chance.

Five Weeks In -Finding Herself Again

“I’m not cured,” she says. “But I’m more myself.”

She can walk through a period without surrendering the day. She can flex around pain instead of being pinned by it. Fatigue still visits; sciatica still knocks; life still throws its usual mess. But the tyranny of pain has loosened. That alone feels radical.

If you live with endometriosis, this story may stir hope. Let it—but let it be a grounded hope. This is one person’s experience with an innovative approach that showed promise in research and is now, in her life, showing promise in practice. 

Keep exploring your options. Pay attention to your body. Track what changes, what improves, and what still needs care. Advocate kindly but persistently. And if you try something new, give yourself the same guardrails she did: small steps, close attention, honest records.

Her results align closely with the early evidence from the UK study of Sodium dichloroacetate (DCA). In that preliminary trial, 30 women with pain‑associated Endometriosis took DCA for 12 weeks and many reported less pain and reduced need for analgesics. The trend is promising and it’s precisely what she is seeing in her own tracking.

She’ll keep going for seven more weeks, aiming to complete a three‑month comparison. Three periods in, she wants the graphs to tell the same story her days are already telling: that DCA, for her, has shifted endometriosis from the center of the room to the side. Not gone. Just no longer in charge.

You can also calculate your preferred and recommended dosage according to your weight. Visit our DOSAGE CALCULATOR.

The post Testing DCA for Endometriosis: A Young Woman’s Five Week Diary appeared first on DCA Guide.

With its ability to target the abnormal metabolism of cancer cells, Sodium dichloroacetate (DCA) has shown promise in recent years of research as a metabolic cancer therapy. Its clinical value and safety in treating cancer, particularly certain forms like medullary thyroid carcinoma, have shown promise and positive effects in many cancer patients.

Here we would like to discuss the case report of a 51-year-old male suffering from terminal medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). Multiple episodes of chemotherapy and other treatments did not cure him of the disease, and on the contrary, he was left with advanced disease along with multiple site metastases. Then he discovered a promising drug called Sodium dichloroacetate, or DCA for short. The response to this simple, old medicine was remarkable, and he became disease-free with virtually none to minimal side effects

Before we delve into the story of this fateful patient, let’s briefly discuss medullary thyroid cancer and DCA.

Table of Contents:

• Understanding Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma

• What Progress Has Been Made with DCA Treatment for Cancer?

• A Remarkable Journey with DCA in Treating Metastatic Medullary Thyroid Cancer: The Case Study 

Understanding Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma: Origins, Symptoms, and Genetic Factors

Medullary thyroid carcinoma is not a very common thyroid malignancy, but it is a rare type of thyroid carcinoma, accounting for approximately 4% of thyroid carcinoma. Contrary to this, papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the one that tops the list of thyroid carcinomas.

Papillary thyroid carcinoma takes its origin from the thyroglobulin-producing follicular cells, whereas calcitonin-producing parafollicular cells (C-cells) are the originator cells for medullary thyroid carcinoma. Thyroglobulin is a protein, and calcitonin is a hormone.

People with MTC present with symptoms like flushing, diarrhoea, and weight loss, which can be attributed to high levels of serum calcitonin secreted from these tumors.

Calcitonin levels can be used to monitor the course of therapy and assess MTC response to treatment, provided the calcitonin levels are elevated before starting the treatment or at the time of diagnosis.

Although MTC is often sporadic, it can also appear in conjunction with multigenerational family history and is, in 25 % of cases, caused by hereditary factors. The genetic basis is polyallelic autosomal dominant germline mutation in the RET proto-oncogene (coding for membrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase) whose manifestations are related to multigene syndromes: MEN2A or MEN2B. (ref)

Treatment Approaches for Medullary Thyroid Cancer: Surgery and Challenges with Advanced Disease

The treatment of choice for medullary thyroid cancer remains surgery, specifically total thyroidectomy. However, this treatment approach is only feasible if the patient is diagnosed while the thyroid cancer is still in its early stages.

There is still hope for patients with locally advanced or metastatic disease, as total thyroidectomy with lymph node dissection is usually recommended. Once metastases develop, these tumors are typically unresectable, but it is still possible to treat the disease and achieve remission.

Advanced endocrine malignancy treatment options are often  unsatisfactory and are associated with poor patient prognosis. Recommended therapies, like cytotoxic chemotherapy and radiation therapy, are associated with possible significant toxicity. These treatments have been reported to have limited efficacy and excessive side effects. (ref)

Sodium Dichloroacetate (DCA): A Promising Therapeutic Agent in Cancer Treatment and Metabolic Targeting

Dichloroacetate (DCA) is a small molecule (150 Da) with high bioavailability. This allows it to reach areas like the brain that standard drugs can’t typically access. (ref.)

The mechanism of action for this effective anti-cancer strategy is the inhibition of the aerobic glycolysis pathway (the usual route for energy production in cancer cells) by suppressing the mitochondrial enzyme pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (Warburg effect).

The good news is that cancer cells cannot shift to glucose oxidation when glycolysis is inhibited, so DCA-treated cancer cells will be short of their cellular energy supply (ATP). DCA prevents cancer cells from fuelling themselves by blocking their intake of the enormous amount of sugar they use to produce energy.

At lower doses, DCA stops tumor growth and progression and halts metastasis (static action).

At higher doses, DCA not only halts tumor growth but also begins shrinking them (cidal action), eventually offering hope of complete eradication. The chances grow even higher when DCA is combined with other treatments. Higher DCA dosage levels can be combined with naturopathic products to minimize potential reversible side effects on peripheral nerves. (ref.)

According to Bonnet et al.’s research, the old, time-tested drug Sodium Dichloroacetate (DCA) can reverse the Warburg phenotype in cancer cells both in laboratory tests and human beings, leading to natural cancer cell death and tumor shrinkage. Previously, it was believed that this was impossible, as the mitochondria in malignant cells were thought to be permanently altered and unable to trigger apoptosis. (ref.)

The anti-cancer mechanisms of DCA include inhibiting angiogenesis, increasing apoptosis, decreasing mitosis, activating the immune system, and targeting cancer stem cells. Seyfried (USA), whose work on this drug was published in 2011, highlighted the importance of inhibiting these cancer-promoting processes and suggested that a multi-energetic, targeted approach is superior to traditional treatment methods alone. (ref.)

Establishing the Safety of DCA

In 2006, researchers sought to establish the safety profile of DCA use in humans, examining both adults and children. (ref.¹, ref.²) To our surprise it was found to be a comparatively safe drug, with no hematologic, cardiac, pulmonary, or renal toxicity. The main side effects that have been established are those exhibiting in our nervous system (peripheral neuropathy), and the good news: they are reversible upon discontinuation and entirely preventable by adhering to the protocol and taking neuroprotective supplements. (ref.)

DCA’s Cancer-Fighting Potential Unveiled

In January 2007, based on a landmark paper, it was established that DCA is highly efficacious in treating human breast, lung, and brain cancers in vitro and in vivo (experimental rodents).

DCA research has continued, and it has been shown to have in vitro efficacy against multiple human cancer cell lines, including ovarian (ref.),  neuroblastoma (ref.), and colon.

In 2008, Cao et al established symbiotic relationship with radiotherapy in prostate cancer cell lines. The increased levels of BCL-2-associated X protein led to a higher rate of cancer cell death. (ref.)

Medicor Study Reveals Positive DCA Outcomes in Diverse Cancer Patients

In 2009 an observational data analysis of therapy with DCA was done at Medicor Cancer Centres on 347 patients. Patients’ ages ranging from 2 years to 90 years were considered under this trial. Variety of primary cancers were treated with DCA. The researchers were able to evaluate 179 of the total patients. The rest of the patient data could not be evaluated because of various reasons.

106 (60%) patients showed a positive response to DCA. Out of which 21 patients (12%) showed complete remission/decrease in tumor size. 2 patients (1%) had complete remission of metastatic cancer. The other 19 patients (11%) had measurable tumor reduction. Rest of the patients showed decreased tumour marker levels/Hematologic profile improvement/Absence of progression of disease. (ref.)  

DCA: A Versatile Tool in Cancer Treatment

A research study published in 2010 by Michelakis et al. gave us an insight into the reversibility of cancer-specific metabolic and mitochondrial remodelling in glioblastoma. 49 patients showed mitochondrial hyperpolarization, which was rapidly reversed by DCA.

The study confirmed that DCA works for cancer by reactivating the mitochondria in cancer cells, shifting their metabolism from glycolysis to oxidative phosphorylation, which promotes natural programmed cancer cell suicide and inhibits tumor growth. (ref.)

DCA works by depolarizing mitochondria, increasing reactive oxygen species, and inducing apoptosis in cancer fast-dividing and stem cells. It also inhibits hypoxia-inducible factor-1α, activates p53, and suppresses angiogenesis both in lab and animal studies. (ref.)

Investigation into DCA efficacy in treating various cancer lines continued since then. DCA showed efficacy in treating multiple human cancer lines. Various researchers proved the efficacy of DCA in vivo in various cancer lines ovarian (ref.), neuroblastoma (ref.), colon (ref.), lung carcinoid (ref.), cervical (ref.) and endometrial (ref.), bile duct/ cholangiocarcinoma (ref.), bladder (ref.), gastric (ref.), head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (ref.), B-chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (ref.), hepatocellular carcinoma (ref.), Non-Hodgkin’s follicular lymphoma (NHL) (ref.), radioresistant medulloblastoma (ref.), melanoma (ref.), multiple myeloma (ref.), pancreatic adenocarcinoma (ref.), pancreatic neuroendocrine carcinoma (ref.), prostate carcinoma (ref.), renal cell carcinoma (ref.), osteosarcoma (ref.), angiosarcoma (ref.), rhabdomyosarcoma (ref.), fibrosarcoma (ref.), thyroid carcinoma (ref.), uterine (endometrial carcinoma) (ref.), cervical carcinoma (ref.) and Wilm’s tumor. (ref.)

DCA: Effective Alone or Combined in Cancer Treatment

A study illustrating the symbiotic relationship between DCA and radiotherapy (in vitro) was published in 2012 in patients with a metastatic renal squamous cell carcinoma. (ref.)  In 2012 a case of cholangiocarcinoma was successfully treated with a combination of drugs like omeprazole and tamoxifen. (ref.)

Still DCA is not a prescribed drug by NCCN or any other prominent oncology forums; it has been used as an off-label drug by doctors for patients who have exhausted nearly all methods of conventional therapies.

The vast ongoing research and clinical experience show that DCA can be used by itself, with alternative medicines, or along with conventional treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy or surgery.

Case Report: Transformative Cancer Healing Journey with DCA for Terminal Thyroid Cancer

The ill-fated story of this 50-year-old gentleman began in 2001, when he was diagnosed with medullary carcinoma thyroid with lymph node involvement. It was a sporadic form of cancer with no genetic factors. His twin brother was cancer-free. His elevated calcitonin levels were successfully treated with a chemotherapy regimen that included dimethyl triazenoimidazole carboximide (DTIC) and 5-fluorouracil.

In 2004, he was again diagnosed with a recurrent disease and was treated with an alternative chemotherapy consisting of a combination of drugs, including carboplatin and daunoxome. However, calcitonin levels were still elevated. He started treatment with Sandostatin (a somatostatin analogue) and a combination of etoposide and carboplatin to lower his calcitonin levels, which were initially 13,280 pg/ml. However, instead of decreasing, his calcitonin levels rose to 20,074 pg/ml.

In 2005, he was treated with a different chemotherapeutic drug protocol (carboplatin, Iressa, Sandostatin, and Zometa), but no success was achieved, and he continued to have elevated calcitonin levels. Additionally, he developed bone metastasis and was prescribed Samarium-153 to help manage his bone pain.

In 2006, chemotherapy of mitomycin C and cisplatin was administered, while he continued Tarceva and Sandostatin. The calcitonin levels remained elevated.

The 2008 year brought more bad news for this patient in the form of multiple metastases in the thoracic area and mediastinum, as confirmed in PET studies. The calcitonin levels kept on increasing, manifesting as diarrhea.

The patient was ineligible for any newer therapies, like the new tyrosine kinase inhibitor under a clinical trial and was confirmed to have a very poor prognosis.

In December 2008, out of despair, he started a protocol of 10 mg/kg of DCA with 750 mg of thiamine supplement. Thiamine was added to prevent reversible peripheral neuropathy, which is one of the possible side effects. Changes in right lumbar metastases and in pelvic area were remarkable compared to PET/CT in October 2008. A small shadow indicating a remaining tumor was observed at the T4 level, which is consistent with the primary tumor metastasis seen on the initial 2008 PET scan.

Table – Milestones of the treatment and follow up

In February 2009, a decrease in the thyroid tumor marker calcitonin to 8,655 pg/ml was first noted (norm is less than 20 pg/ml). A further reduction in calcitonin to 2,000 pg/ml was observed two months later.

In May 2009, after 5 months of DCA administration, the PET scan showed a noteworthy reduction in tumor numbers and sizes.

This above-mentioned success story in treating MTC with DCA gives a new silver line for these patients. DCA has shown a significant impact in treating metastatic medullary thyroid cancer, highlighting its promise for future cases. More studies on other MTC patients are needed to reveal valuable insights on how to incorporate DCA in similar situations, especially for those who have exhausted conventional chemotherapy options.

In other words, despite being a generic compound, DCA has all the hallmarks of a wonder drug for those uncommon and often treatment-resistant cancers. It is less toxic, much cheaper, and readily available.

Could this be the next big breakthrough in a disease that has so far resisted all our best efforts?

Medullary thyroid carcinoma relapse reversed with dichloroacetate: A case report

References

1.    Flavin, D. (2010 Sep; 1(5)). Medullary thyroid carcinoma relapse reversed with dichloroacetate: A case report. Oncol Lett, 889–891

2.    Michelakis, E. D., Webster, L., & Mackey, J. R. (2013 Aug). Dichloroacetate (DCA) as a potential metabolic-targeting therapy for cancer. British Journal of Cancer, 108(3): 490–495

3.    Stockwin, L. H., Yu, S. X., Borgel, S., Hancock, C., Wolfe, T. L., Phillips, L. R., et al. (2010). Sodium dichloroacetate (DCA) selectively targets cells with defects in the mitochondrial ETC. British Journal of Cancer, 102: 1251–1258

4.    Maia AL, Siqueira DR, Kulcsar MA, Tincani AJ, Mazeto GM, Maciel LM. (2014 Oct). Diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of medullary thyroid carcinoma: recommendations by the Thyroid Department of the Brazilian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism. Arq Bras Endocrinol Metabol, 58(7):667-700

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Recent research has begun to illustrate insights into how we may use and expect DCA to support individuals dealing with cancer. In the following article, “Long-term stabilization of stage 4 colon cancer using sodium dichloroacetate therapy”, by authors A. Khan, D. Andrews, and A. Bernecke, we are shown just that. 

In this article, the authors review a remarkable patient case report example to illustrate how over more than a four-year period, a stage 4 colon cancer case’s use of DCA and associated naturopathic supports helped to stabilize her condition and enable her to continue to live a full life.  To begin, let’s examine more of the background around DCA’s mechanism of action, extant research and some of the case particulars to better understand the findings.

Promising Potential of Sodium Dichloroacetate (DCA) in Cancer Treatment: Observational Insights

Sodium dichloroacetate first started to gain attention of researchers and practitioners alike in the cancer realm due to initial positive research first published in 2007.  Illustrated to show benefit to cancer patients by inducing programmed cell death by blocking something called ‘anaerobic glycolysis’ (i.e. oxygen deficient sugar usage), early studies and research were limited by the fact that in vitro (i.e. in test tubes or cell lines, not in actual human subjects) concentrations of DCA used were not necessarily reproducible and feasible to achieve in people. 

However, additional studies revealed that at lower concentrations more attainable to achieve in patients, DCA could be cytostatic (i.e. tumor stopping) and could represent a relatively low risk. It would become a reasonably low toxic therapy that could be combined with other agents to inhibit tumor cell proliferation and extend life.

Observational data collected in the clinic of primary author A. Khan, using this level of dosage, illustrated 60-70 percent of individuals getting clinical benefit (out of a total of 300 patients). Also, 20-25% of these individuals developed low-grade neuropathy on this particular protocol of 2 weeks on and one week off utilizing a dosage of 20-25 mg/kg of body weight for each patient.

This article, which importantly does not feature any financial conflicts of interest, specifically examined the use of DCA in conjunction with a supplemental naturopathic protocol of nutraceuticals to minimize neurotoxicity (specifically benfotiamine, alpha lipoic acid, and l-carnitine) in a 57-year-old, stage four colon cancer patient. Notably, in a case of stage 4 colon cancer, the normal survival time would be between 9-12 months with a conventional chemotherapy regimen. 

However, in this case report, the authors illustrated disease stabilization and lack of progression over a four-year period while this patient continued to dose DCA in several different formats and dosages. 

Integrative Stage 4 Colorectal Cancer Treatment: DCA and Naturopathic Support with Chemotherapy

This patient was diagnosed in mid-2010 with stage 4 colorectal cancer with multiple metastases to the liver, microscopic metastases to the lungs and an annular rectal carcinoma that was difficult to measure via CT imagery. Before presenting to the author’s clinic and initiating DCA and naturopathic supportive therapy, the patient underwent a loop ileostomy procedure to bypass the obstruction, and the rectal tumor was not removed.

That surgery was followed by chemotherapy (i.e. FOLFIRI + bevacizumab). Initially the patient responded to chemotherapy with a reduction in liver metastases, a reduction of the primary rectal lesion, and a reduction of blood carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) marker from 260.9 ng/mL before chemo to 3.5 ng/mL just prior to DCA therapy initiation. The response to chemo then began to plateau. By the time the patient presented to the author’s clinic, chemotherapy was causing minimal disease reduction, and was essentially just maintaining stability.

The patient previously had reported being healthy but did feature a 20-year history of smoking and had a family history of gastric and colon cancer.  She also reported the following symptomology when presenting to the clinic: mild mouth sores related to the ongoing chemotherapy, mild diarrhea (expected with an ileostomy) and mild periodic rectal bleeding. There was also some aching, burning lower back and sacral pain up to 6 out of 10 intensity, and mild right shoulder-tip pain exacerbated by chemotherapy.

Since the chemotherapy was still effective, and the patient was not experiencing any serious side effects, the initial approach was to support the patient’s existing therapy, not replace it when she came to the author’s clinic in March 2012. An integrative plan was made in cooperation with a naturopathic physician (D. Andrews).

The plan consisted of addition of high dose oral vitamin D at 10 000 international units per day, a change of oral vitamin C to vitamin C 50 g intravenous (i.v.) weekly, and addition of dichloroacetate sodium (DCA) 3000 mg i.v. (49 mg/kg) weekly.

To reduce the risk of DCA side effects, 3 natural supplements were prescribed:

• intravenous Alpha lipoic acid 500 mg with each DCA dose,

• oral R-alpha lipoic acid 150 mg 3 times a day,

• oral acetyl L-carnitine 500 mg 3 times a day,

• oral benfotiamine 80 mg twice a day.

Infusions were planned around chemotherapy infusions (separated by at least 2 days from chemotherapy) to avoid any potential interference or drug interactions. Lipoic acid was not given on chemotherapy days, or within 2 d before or after chemotherapy since it is a powerful antioxidant and has the potential to reduce chemotherapy efficacy.

Initiation of DCA Therapy and Case Progression

No side effects were noted, so DCA was increased to 4000 mg i.v. (66 mg/kg) weekly. The only side effect noted at the higher DCA dose was mild post-infusion sedation. A few additional meds were added such as metformin and pregabalin for extra support and regular bloodwork was done to monitor the situation.  After 4 months of integrative therapy as described, a new CT scan was performed, which was reported as “stable and unchanged”. 

By September 2012, increasing chemotherapy side effects including fatigue, nausea and vomiting were noted. A new CT scan revealed that all the liver lesions were “either smaller or no longer identified”. There were no new lesions identified. After review of the CT scan, the patient decided to stop all chemotherapy as well as adjunctive meds bevacizumab and metformin. DCA (i.v.) was continued, and the dose was increased to 4500 mg i.v. weekly.

After stopping the chemo, the patient reported complete resolution of nausea and vomiting while pain was staying well controlled.  A further CT scan 3 months later showed no progression of liver metastases or other growths. 

There were some minor side effects such as elevated liver enzymes and mild neuropathy, so she took a 3 month break of DCA while starting 5 nutraceuticals (benfotiamine, Alpha lipoic acid, curcumin, honokiol, and acetyl l carnitine) to support repair from the neuropathy and to support disease control.  During this break, there was only a slight increase in CEA while neuropathy resolved, and liver enzymes normalized. 

Shortly thereafter this time, due to cost constraints, the patient opted to switch from IV therapy to oral DCA therapy of 500 mgs twice daily. She also reduced her pain medication use by approximately 70 percent.  The patient continued this regimen with regular CT scans every 3 to 6 months. Gradually, due to busyness, the patient was less compliant with regular blood testing.

That said, she remained highly functional with mild, well-controlled chronic neuropathy.  She attempted to increase DCA to 500 mg 3 times a day, but this resulted in significant liver enzyme elevations and increase in neuropathy. As a result, a DCA dose of 500 mg twice a day was resumed after a brief therapy interruption. Ongoing CT scans continued to reveal stable disease with no new lesions appearing.

Overall, CEA did not significantly change from the initiation of DCA therapy (CEA of 3.5 at the start of DCA therapy, to CEA of 3.7 after nearly 4 years of therapy). Her general blood panel was also favorable at the 3-year mark and after the 4-year mark.

Remarkable 6-Year Survival in Terminal Colorectal Cancer with DCA and Chemotherapy Combination

After beginning with conventional chemotherapy for approximately 18 months, the patient received intravenous DCA therapy with concurrent chemotherapy for approximately 6 months, followed by intravenous and oral DCA therapy with no conventional cancer therapy for nearly 4 years.

During the treatment with oral DCA, the patient experienced stable disease evidenced by CT scans and CEA tumor markers.  As noted in the beginning of this article, this represents a dramatic extension of life span and quality of life compared to what would be typical with a conventional chemotherapeutic regimen.  Additionally, she was able to maintain the lower dose of pain meds, keep neuropathy minimal and continue on with her life, running her business.

The duration of stability while on DCA without other active chemotherapy is currently 46 mo (nearly 4 years as of publication date in 2016), with a survival time since the initial diagnosis of stage 4 colorectal cancer of 6 years. Based on the National Cancer Institute’s cancer statistics, the 5-year relative survival rate for females diagnosed with stage IV colon/rectal cancer is 14.4%. 

While one cannot conclude with absolute certainty that DCA was responsible for this result, given the averages with typical chemo regimens for this staging and type of cancer, the probability of this occurring would be quite low.  As of the date of publication, the patient remained well and continued her DCA therapy. 

References

1. Akbar Khan, D. A. (2016 Oct 16; 4(10)). Long-term stabilization of stage 4 colon cancer using sodium dichloroacetate therapy. World J Clin Cases, 336–343.
2. Fotios Loupakis, C. C. (2014 Oct 23). Initial therapy with FOLFOXIRI and bevacizumab for metastatic colorectal cancer. The New England Journal of Medicine, 371(17):1609-18.

The post Revolutionizing Stage 4 Colon Cancer Treatment: The Power of Sodium Dichloroacetate Therapy appeared first on DCA Guide.

The biggest problem with endometriosis, besides the symptoms it causes, is that adequate treatment is nonexistent. However, the first preclinical studies reveal groundbreaking results suggesting that Sodium dichloroacetate (DCA) could aid in managing this painful condition.

Proper treatment for endometriosis doesn’t exist just yet. In most cases, doctors manage symptoms in endometriosis patients through contraceptive drugs. However, they have plenty of uncomfortable adverse reactions, including changes in mood, weight gain, increased risk of thrombosis and depression. Furthermore, they have a counter-productive effect for women that are trying to conceive in their childbearing age. (Ref.)

For that reason, findings made by the researchers at the University of Edinburgh hold major significance as they show the possibility of a more adequate treatment method for this condition.

It is worth mentioning endometriosis exhibits cancer-like biochemical features. Tumor cells rely on aerobic glycolysis, which increases lactate secretion. Interestingly, secretion of lactate and certain cytokines are also elevated in the peritoneal fluid of patients with endometriosis. (Ref.)

Sodium Dichloroacetate Potential in Managing Endometriosis

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrated that it is possible to reverse these pathological alterations of human peritoneal mesothelial cells (HPMCs) with DCA.

The research has shown endometriosis HMPCs are more dependent on energy produced through glycolysis than the same cells in healthy women. Administration of DCA has the potential to correct their abnormal cellular energy state. In fact, this small-molecule medication successfully inhibited the release of HMPCs lactate in vitro, and oral administration decreased the size of endometriosis lesions in mice in vivo. (Ref.)

For the purpose of the study, scientists randomly assigned mice to receive either water or DCA for seven days. Mice in the DCA group received 100 mg/kg. To translate these important results to women, scientists are using the drug in an exploratory clinical trial. (Ref.)

Why does DCA for work for endometriosis? The groundbreaking research of scientists from the University of Edinburgh showed a cancer drug could help treat endometriosis, and several mechanisms could be involved in the process. (Ref.)

Mechanisms of DCA in Endometriosis Treatment

Scientists explain DCA acts as a PDK inhibitor, an enzyme that is overexpressed in some forms of cancer. The type of PDK, called PDK1, has the highest sensitivity to the inhibitory effects of DCA medication. When DCA inhibits PDK, a chain of reactions occurs that results with a lower presence of harmful metabolites like lactate. The medication can also inhibit pro-proliferative and pro-angiogenic transcription factors.

However, the drug could have an impact on other types of cells that are altered in women with endometriosis. For example, the lesions and macrophages in patients with endometriosis consist of a wide array of phenotypes.

DCA Impact on Other Altered Cells

The DCA treatment could encourage metabolic reprogramming of macrophages and navigate it to a pro-repair phenotype with a positive impact on endometriosis pathogenesis. (Ref.)

In other words, the pelvic wall of women with endometriosis produces higher levels of lactate, a potentially harmful waste product. This particularly harmful alteration is also observed in cancerous cells. After treatment with Sodium dichloroacetate, cells in endometriosis patients return to their normal and usual metabolic behavior. The amount of the above mentioned waste product reduces. Only a week after treatment with DCA, the endometriosis lesions became much smaller in mouse models.

While more research on this subject is necessary, treatment with DCA could be life-changing for women with endometriosis. DCA can become the first effective nonhormonal treatment for patients with this painful condition.

As mentioned above, current therapeutic strategies for women with endometriosis consist of contraceptive drugs, i.e., they are hormone-based. These kinds of treatments aren’t suitable for all women, particularly those who wish to conceive.

At the same time, these medications may also cause serious side effects. While surgery to remove lesions is also an option, the disease usually comes back within five years. The research at the University of Edinburgh demonstrated that the DCA medication might help treat endometriosis and reduce the size of lesions associated with it. Clinical trials are ongoing and will yield more information about this potentially revolutionary non-hormonal treatment for endometriosis.

It seems that Sodium dichloroacetate, a drug researched for cancer treatment, could give millions of women an opportunity to treat endometriosis without using medications that act on their hormones. The drug can also reduce waste product production that is otherwise increased in an endometriosis state and could be related to the symptoms of the dreaded disease.

The post First Pre-Clinical Results Show Promise in Managing Endometriosis with Sodium Dichloroacetate appeared first on DCA Guide.

DNA errors and new mutations in the melanin-producing cells – melanocytes – give rise to a tumor called melanoma. The most frequent cause for this malignancy is excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation while sunbathing or indoor tanning.

The other risk factors include heredity, light skin type, high amount of moles on the body (over 50) and immunosuppresion. The latter is mostly caused by HIV or by immunosuppressive medications.

In the last century the number of skin cancer is increasing. Maybe this is happening because the beauty standards are changing ?

Earlier in the days pale skin was associated with royalty and higher status. People that worked in the fields more often had tanned skin. On the other hand, the nobles didn‘t have to go outside and work for a living. For that reason they received less UV overexposure and had fair-skin. Interestingly, some places like the majority of Asia (particularly Thailand) still consider pale skin as a beauty ideal.

However, nowadays in the west a tanned body is being regarded as a symbol of youth, beauty and sexuality. It is no surprise that so many people spend hours in tanning beds. Perhaps it is not emphasized enough that such an innocent thing such as indoor tanning can double the likelihood of melanoma. Besides, did you know that the World health organization classified ‘‘Ultraviolet-emitting tanning devices“ as a first group cancerogen? (Ref.)

It is worth remembering that even such a simple thing like a sunscreen can literally be lifesaving. Some sources claim that UV protection could reduce the risk of skin cancer at least by 50 %.

To our surprise, melanoma accounts only for 5 % of all skin cancers. However, it is responsible for at least 75 % deaths related to the malignancies of the skin. No wonder why such a relatively rare cancer is so reknowned.

If you belong to a risk group – you have a fair skin tone, more than 50 moles, someone in your family tree had melanoma, you take immunosuppressive drugs regularly or had serious sunburns in your life – please develop a habit to examine your skin regularly every month or so.

As with the majority of cancer cases, time is of the essence with melanoma.
The sooner it‘s noticed – the better the outcome. Moreover, melanoma can simply be noticed with the help of self-examination in front of the mirror. This makes it one of the most easily and early noticed tumors there is. In many instances, one can spot melanoma without the help of a doctor.

To treat advanced melanoma, one must use systemic whole body affecting medications. Currently the most popular choices in conventional medicine are chemotherapy, immunotherapy and target therapy. The latter two are new methods and grant hope in metastatic melanoma treatment. Then again, a lot of work still needs to be done in the pursuit of better therapy against this neoplastic disease. (Ref.) What we described are the main treatment options used by doctors in ordinary clinical settings. Naturally, there are other additional ways that may help stabilize or shrink the tumors.

With this in mind, let‘s look at the other options available widely for people with cancer .

Truly, while there are surgical, medical or dietary methods to fight melanoma, one shouldn‘t forget another considerable option – metabolic therapy with dichloroacetate. The tiny molecule which exhibits selective cytostatic and cytotoxic effect on cancer cells.

Alternative Treatment Approache for Melanoma – Sodium Dichloroacetate (DCA)

Today the publicly available evidence states that DCA could be useful against brain, thyroid, lymphoma, neuroblastoma, breast, lung, kidney, colon and other cancers. (Ref.)

To our surprise, Sodium dichloroacetate also seems to be effective in the treatment of advanced melanoma. It appears to have the capacity to shrink tumors, stabilize the disease and to prevent the condition from worsening. All of which happened in this example with a man from Canada.

We present a clinical case – BRAF-positive, III stage recurrent melanoma, which continuously came back after a handful of conventional medicine treatments.

Clinical Case: Sodium Dichloroacetate Therapy for Advanced Melanoma

In a period of 4 years dichloroacetate helped the man not only to stabilize the disease and shrink the existing cancerous masses, but also to continue living a normal life while experiencing minimal side effects. (Ref.)

It all began in 2006 when this 32 year old fair-skinned man noticed a changing mole on his leg. The skin lesion looked like it should be checked out by a specialist. Little did he know that this small surprise would later become a big problem and regularly come back every time it was treated. Bigger, meaner and more stubborn.

The person visited the doctor and had a skin check. The dermatologist confirmed the lesion to be cancerous and soon afterwards it was removed by a surgeon‘s scalpel. The pathologists identified the excised skin tissue to be melanoma. Luckily, the disease hadn‘t spread to the nearby lymph nodes by then. There were no more suspicious moles.

After a year the male noticed enlarged lymph nodes in his groin and new melanoma-like looking lesions on his left leg. It looked like the cancer had relapsed. Shortly, after a visit to the hospital the man was prescribed Interferon-Alpha and began systemic treatment.

Thankfully, the results were not bad. The Interferon-α therapy lasted 9 months and it shrank the enlarged cancerous lymphoid tissue as well as the malignant melanoma on his leg. However, the treatment made the man feel sick, he couldn‘t bear the flu-like side effects. Therefore, he stopped taking the medication.

Till 2010 the man had no bigger complains regarding his health and lived on. Sadly, the cancer reappeared again. The male noticed new skin cancer lesions on his left leg, which were once again removed in a health care center surgically.

Despite the efforts, at the end of 2011, the melanoma lesions recurred in the same place again. This time they grew on the scar tissue formed from the last surgical operation. At this point the surgeons decided to remove a broader area of the skin with the recurrent tumors and to perform a skin grafting operation.

Unfortunately, at 2012 March the tumors reappeared in the new skin graft. The doctors tried to perform two more skin removal operations and skin grafting procedures, but it was no use. The cancer relapsed every time. A biopsy of the left groin lymph nodes was made.

The biopsy confirmed the metastasis of BRAF-positive melanoma to this region. The man fought 6 years against this deadly disease, had at least 5 surgical operations and even took systemic treatment. Sadly, every year the skin cancer would renew itself and everything started over again.


After a couple of months he started looking for alternative cancer treatment methods – he took a vegan diet and was consulted by a naturopath. The Naturopathic doctor prescribed:

• mushroom extract (with the active compound AHCC), • dandelion root,  • astragalus root,
• curcumin, • European mistletoe extract, • intravenous vitamin C.

Regardless of the hopeful and enthusiastic attempt, the vegan diet and the naturopathic therapy didn’t seem to work. After a couple of months CT and PET scans revealed that the cancerous tumors are growing and the lymph nodes in the inguinal region are getting larger.

Not only the cancer was spreading, but also an aching pain appeared in the area of the enlarged lymph nodes.

Cancer screening tests revealed that the patient had disease progression.

With nothing to lose, the man decided to try out the DCA therapy, which recently had generated community interest in Canada.

2012 July, approximately 6 years after the cancer diagnosis and various treatment approaches, the male once again decided to overcome his stage III melanoma. This time with the help of Sodium dichloroacetate.

His every day ‘‘DCA protocol‘‘ consisted of:

• 500 mg of DCA three times a day
(administration scheme (cycles) – 2 weeks of DCA intake + 1 week break),
• 80 mg of Benfotiamine twice a day,
• 150 mg of Alpha-Lipoic acid three times a day,
• 500 mg of Acetyl L-Carnitine three times a day.

He took this mixture for four years. During this time period, he experienced mild side effects. The man felt slight numbness and weakness in his fingers and hands at some point, he also noticed gentle concentration disturbances.

However, it didn‘t take long till he reversed the adverse reactions. This was most likely achieved because of switching to a different administration scheme – 2 weeks on DCA + 1 week off DCA. Secondary responses weren‘t experienced later on.

Perhaps an additional week break is sufficient enough to give the body adequate time to flush away the accumulation of DCA. Furthermore, the 14 days of continuous Sodium dichloroacetate intake is more efficient in selectively getting rid of cancer cells (more about the administration schemes). The man also performed regular blood tests to make sure that everything is okay. Even when administrating dichloroacetate for four years, the parameters continued to stay within normal ranges. The slightly decreased creatinine levels were already noticed before the DCA protocol, moreover, this modest change is not clinically significant.

The example of blood work proves that when one takes Sodium dichloroacetate for long periods of time, noticeable toxic effects on the majority of organ systems don‘t seem to be evident.

The post DCA and Cancer Melanoma long-time remission and stabilisation (Case presentation) appeared first on DCA Guide.

Did you ever have a thought that you would rather eat something that is created by natural forces in the living world than by scientists in a laboratory flask? As time passes by, we humans tend to enrich our daily diets with things that were not so easily available to our ancestors. One of these things is various biologically active compounds.

The particular organic substance which interests DCAGuide the most is dichloroacetate. This simple molecule can exhibit numerious health effects and benefits which are mainly due to the fact that it revives the mitochondrial function.

Today there is still only a handful of research articles which discuss the likelihood of DCA occurring in nature. (Ref.¹), (Ref.²)

Interestingly, this could change in the nearby future as more and more scientists discover the exciting applications of marine algae for health. Thereby the organic halogen compounds in these seaweeds might be explored more widely (such as dichloroacetate).

Half a century ago, many people considered dichloroacetate to be just a bi-product of water chlorination (the process of making the water ‘‘germ-free“) and started researching its potential effects on the human condition.

Firstly, the main interest was to find out if the substance could be harmful when ingested with water. Most of the water has about 7–20 μg/l of DCA, some areas have lesser or bigger concentrations. Swimmers, for example, often do their training in swimming pools which are filled with chlorinated water and because of that, have bigger concentrations of DCA in their blood plasma.

Later on, in the 80s, groups of researchers have found interesting applications of Dichloroacetate. Moore and others discovered that this simple molecule could lower the levels of  ‘‘bad“ or low density lipoprotein cholesterol in the case of familial hypercholesterolemia. Afterwards, with the enthusiasm of Peter W. Stacpoole, DCA was developed into a drug which decreased serum lactate levels in children with congenital lactic acidosis. This is still, virtually, the only substance that can achieve such results untill the present day.
(Ref.¹) (Ref.²)

Moreover, just recently it has been suggested that Dichloroacetate could improve the well-being of people with Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The drug increases mitochondrial function in patients with Pulmonary hypertension and rises positive expectations for people with this condition.
(Ref.¹), (Ref.²)

And despite all of these discoveries and ongoing interest, much of the available literature still considers DCA to be solely a synthethic chemical compound, which does not normally occur in the living world. However, today we will discuss why this is not true.

Even though the scientific literature on this subject is scarce, it is confirmed that dichloroacetate is found in at least one red algae – Asparagopsis taxiformis. Of course, this could suggest that DCA only occurs in one organism naturally, but let‘s look at the broader picture.

Rarely, if at all, anyone mentions the high probability that this organic halogen compound could be found in more species such as Asparagospis armata and other seaweeds of this family. These algae, just like A. taxiformis, grow in various places around the world, for example, the Mediterranean sea, the sea around Hawaii and other warm waters. It is speculated that these organisms synthesize and use halogenated molecules for the defense against bacterial, viral and fungal activity.
(Ref.¹), (Ref.²)

Investigators guess that the way dichloroacetate appears in these algae is by the activity of an enzyme – chloroperoxidase. (Ref.)

What‘s interesting, Asparagopsis taxiformis extract has been researched as an effective agent against Leishamnia as well as infections caused by bacteria and fungi. There are also studies which suggest that these sea grass could decrease the methane emissions of cows by 70 – 90 % and thus help protect the environment. However, a big quantity of the algae would be needed to feed the cattle.
(Ref.¹), (Ref.²)

To our surprise, in Hawaii, Asparagopsis is viewed as a very highly valued seaweed and has been used for centuries as food by the Hawaiians. They say that it goes well with seafood and fish, it is a known condiment that adds flavour and is one of the most popular limu in the cuisine of Hawaii. (Ref.)

We would also want to mention an interesting fact that many of our readers have probably not heard before.
Did you know that dichloroacetate naturally and abiotically forms in the environment around us? The process involves materials found in the soil and humic material. Phenolic substances and chloride containing compounds react with each other and as a result – chloroacetates are created. One of them is dichloroacetate. (Ref.)

So it looks like many scientific journals and resources should check their information twice before classifying DCA solely as a synthetic compound. We already know that the molecule has been ingested by humans as a tiny part of their diets long before the modern chemistry could even manufacture it in labs.

Does this mean that we could get our Sodium dichloroacetate from natural sources? Yes, however, we would need to harvest a lot of red algae, make extracts and then purify the DCA. That would be an expensive and a difficult task which should mainly be done for research purposes.

Remember, to determine the structure of Alpha-Lipoic acid researchers used approximately 10 tons of liver, which only yielded 30 milligrams of ALA! Today Lipoic acid, a daily food supplement, is manufactured only synthetically. (Ref.)

Does this mean that the artificially produced DCA in laboratories is as good for use as the one found in nature? This mainly depends on the purity, but generally – yes.

To tell the truth, when you have such a simple compound with remarkable therapeutic value – the only things that matter is the quality of the product and the knowledge on how to use it.

The post Sodium dichloroacetate in nature? More than you’ve expected appeared first on DCA Guide.

An inexpensive drug already in use for other diseases might hold the key to a completely new way of treating cancers – not by killing off cancer cells, but by simply reprogramming them.

These findings come from exciting Canadian research on patients with brain tumours. The study revealed that DCA – or sodium dichloroacetate – can shrink the tumors by altering the cancer cell’s metabolism. While the study was small, only five patients, the researchers say their findings are “proof in principle” that this treatment approach works.

However, since DCA is a generic drug, no big pharmaceutical companies can claim exclusivity over the potential sales if they decide to fund further studies on cancer. The only remaining option to continue researching its potential place in oncology remains within the universities, health authorities and the support of funding agencies.

“That was the biggest challenge in the beginning: no industry support, no clinical applications,” explained Dr. Evangelos Michelakis.

Nevertheless, with the generous support of potential donors and the work of the scientific community, anything can happen.

The post [Video] Global News report on DCA appeared first on DCA Guide.

Did you know that Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a quite common cancer ?

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma accounts for 4 % of all new cancer cases. About 20 men and women of 100 000 develop this disease annually.
In 2014 there were about 660 000 people in America who were living with this diagnosis. (Ref.)

The numbers of new Non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases are increasing every year. However, this could be because the diagnostic capabilities of such diseases are getting better. (Ref.)

A lot of cancers, including Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, are treated with chemotherapy which can help achieve full remission (cured cancer).

Unfortunately, treatment with such medications can result in uncomfortable adverse reactions and long-term health problems. Sometimes the malignancy can relapse (come back) and you have to take chemo drugs all over again.

Not surprisingly, this can be a couple of reasons why people seek alternative cancer therapies by themselves or with the help of other specialists.
 

One of such alternative treatment choices is Sodium dichloroacetate. Before the idea that this drug could be used to help someone with oncological illnesses, the substance has been used for several decades as a medication for children suffering from congenital mitochondrial diseases.

DCA pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and side effects were studied and discovered long before the accidental findings that this medication could be useful for treating cancer. (Ref.¹), (Ref.²)

Mechanism of Action: How DCA Fights Cancer

But how does DCA work ? To put it simply, the most important thing that you should know about the mechanism is that the drug inhibits an important enzyme for cancer – pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase. This leads to various changes in tumor cells.

Firstly, the Warburg effect is diminished. This resumes normal cellular respiration from aerobic glycolysis and lowers elevated intracellular acidity. Secondly, dichloroacetate promotes selective cancer cell apoptosis (cell death) which means that it stops tumor growth and shrinks their volume. Last but not least, DCA can even lower the risk of metastasis. (Ref.)

These sound like great accomplishments considering the fact that the risk of side effects is significantly lower when you take DCA with a couple of other food supplements.
 
If, however, the adverse reactions do show up – they‘re mostly mild and do not cause much discomfort. These issues are entirely reversible and go away in a couple of days when you stop taking dichloroacetate. (Ref.)

So, this appears to be a promising alternative cancer treatment. And it‘s already helping people who are dealing with oncological diseases. (Ref.¹), (Ref.²)

We believe that it could help even more people. That is why we would like to present a case in which a currently 52 year old man cured his cancer.

He had IV stage Non-Hodgkin follicular lymphoma, which was completely resolved as a result of self-medication with DCA (Sodium dichloroacetate).

Remarkable Results: Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma before and after DCA Treatment

The person was at the age of 46 when he started feeling strange. In the last 5 months he lost a lot of weight (50 pounds), had constant fever and drenching night sweats. On top of that, he had enlarged cervical lymph nodes that extended all the way from the top of his neck to the collarbone.

Finally, the man decided to wait no more and got his health checked. The results of a computed tomography scan concluded that there were pathologic lymph nodes in his head, neck, chest, abdomen and pelvis. This was poor news.

Once the male had biopsies taken from his bone marrow and lymph nodes, the diagnosis became clear – he had IV stage Non-Hodgkin follicular lymphoma.

Shortly afterwards the doctors gave him six cycles of R-CHOP chemotherapy (rituximab,cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin,vincristine and prednisolone).

The chemo treatment took several intense months. When he once again had a CT scan performed, the doctors confirmed that he was clear from cancer. He had achieved his first remission (his tumors disappeared).

The man resumed to his former way of life, continued his ordinary daily activities and regularly performed health checks at the physician‘s office. For a year he was completely healthy.

However, after some time the fever, coughing and night sweats came back. Not only that, but he had also lost 11 pounds in two weeks.

The male went straight to the doctors and after a couple of diagnostic procedures he received bad news.

He had enlarged lymph nodes on the right side of his head and neck. The cancer was back.

When the man received offers to repeat the treatment, he refused, claiming that chemotherapy and its side effects, especially nausea and vomiting, made him extremely upset and that he would rather avoid the experience.

As a result of his situation, he started searching for alternative cancer treatments that could improve his condition.

Shortly, he learned about DCA, bought this substance online and began treating himself.

His every day ‘‘DCA protocol“ consisted of:
• 1 000 mg Sodium dichloroacetate,
• Vitamin B1 500 mg,
• Alpha-Lipoic acid 600 mg,
• Green tea leaf extract (Jarrow) 500 mg,
• 10 oz of  Mountain Dew (he would mix it with DCA and drink it afterwards).

The man took this regimen every day. These were the results:

✓ After two weeks his fever, night sweats, fatigue and weight loss started to improve.
✓ After a month of taking DCA his enlarged lymph nodes started to shrink. Two months later no lymph nodes were palpable.
✓ After 71 days of the regimen his symptoms disappeared completely. He recovered his sense of well-being, was full of energy, regained normal appetite and was once again able to have good quality sleep.

Eventually, something astonishing happened. There were no remaining signs of cancer left in his body. This was confirmed by a PET scan at 2008 December (4 months after he had begun his DCA therapy).

All of the previous tumor was gone. The man was cured from Non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer.

Last time they contacted this person who beat cancer was at the end of 2012. Then he claimed that he still takes 1 000 mg of DCA three times a week together with Thiamine and Alpha-Lipoic acid for prophylaxis.

The 52 year old man feels great. He enjoys his life and works full-time. The last PET scan did not detect any cancerous tissues and cells in the body. Aside from his slightly elevated triglyceride and cholesterol levels, all of his blood tests are normal (the fat and cholesterol are probably higher due to other reasons).

We prepared this case for presentation based on voluntary medical document distribution to the researchers.

If you want to find out more details about this report, please take your time and read the two research studies
who are based on this case.

The first analysis was prepared by a Medical Doctor from UK – D. Flavin, the second was made by Stephen B. Strum and his colleagues from the USA.

• Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Reversal with Dichloroacetate (Case report)
• Case Report: Sodium dichloroacetate (DCA) inhibition of the “Warburg Effect” in a human cancer patient: complete response in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after disease progression with rituximab-CHOP (Case report)

The post DCA and Cancer: Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cured in 4 months (Case presentation) appeared first on DCA Guide.

We would like to show you one of the ways to accurately measure the powder of Sodium Dichloroacetate and how to dissolve it to make a solution.

Afterwards, the solution can be taken in the morning or in the evening as a part of your anti-cancer regimen.

In short, the video explains how to:

• Calculate the correct dose of DCA you should be taking.
• Detailed steps for making a daily Dichloroacetate solution for morning and evening use.
• A quick summary about the best conditions in which you can store a solution like this.

We hope this video will be helpful.

The post [Video] How to measure Dichloroacetate. The common method appeared first on DCA Guide.

These bizarre findings led to speculations. Could arsenic trioxide be a potent healing substance for breast cancer and maybe even other malignancies?

It happens to be true. More up-to-date studies revealed that ATO does reduce cancer cell division rates and numbers in vitro, as well as in experimental animal tumor models. Arsenic trioxide could be a material that we feel has not demonstrated its full potential yet. As we already know, Dichloroacetate can be used as a safe way to help heal malignancies. Despite the fact that using DCA for the treatment of cancer is a relatively new idea, the drug has been used for decades to give medical care for people who have congenital mitochondrial as well as other diseases. The substance has already been observed for some time and its side effects are quite minimal in comparison with other chemical cancer treatments.

At the moment, it is known that Dichloroacetate can have a beneficial effect on a variety of cancerous diseases. For example, in breast cancer.

Furthermore, it appears  that the substance can stop breast tumor growth and even provide a selective cytotoxic effect on aggressive breast cancer cells (stop and shrink tumours). DCA can also prevent the rise of acidity in the tissues, stop angiogenesis and keep malignant cancer cells from spreading to the body (metastasis).

Most importantly, the medication can be combined with other anti-cancer substances.  DCA sensitizes the cancer cells towards other cytotoxic agents and enhances the pro-apoptotic effects of other drugs.

With this in mind, we can combine Arsenic trioxide and Dichloroacetate to achieve more dramatic results on breast cancer treatment.

As the study shows, the combination of ATO and DCA slows down cancer growth and causes apoptosis of breast tumor cells while doing all of this is in clinically relevant concentrations. That is why the mix allows us to achieve effective results while reducing the side effects to a minimum.

Arsenic trioxide, dichloroacetate and their combination don’t cause cytotoxicity on normal cells, but their combination is beneficial for treating breast cancer. Surprisingly, the combination of the two has a much larger impact on malignancies which proves us why the mix could be used simultaneously.

The conclusions of the study leave us enthusiastic and eager for more clinical studies on breast cancer. So far, the results seem promising and show the potential of this unordinary drug combination.

Ultimately, one thing remains certain. A proper lifestyle, a balanced diet and the positive attitude of an individual can do wonders for one‘s health. We live in a golden age, humanity has so many treatment opportunities these days – surgical removal of tumors, radiotherapy, chemotherapy…

It goes without saying that we should continue keeping our fingers crossed for every new research that could help us uncover safer, cheaper and more effective therapeutic options on dreaded diseases such as cancer.

Stay tuned for more information on the subject.

Full study on the topic:
Targeting metabolism with arsenic trioxide and dichloroacetate in breast cancer cells

The post Healing breast cancer with arsenic trioxide and dichloroacetate appeared first on DCA Guide.

CRC without doubt is one of the most common cancers in the world. Luckily, if caught early – it is often curable by surgery. Later stages of Colorectal cancer become more dependent on chemotherapy treatment.

Usually chemo drugs are not used alone, it is preferred to combine two or more medications simultaneously. This way the treatment is more effective and the patient experiences less toxicity when dealing with cancer.

As far as we know, DCA is able to provide an outstanding effect against certain malignancies while causing little to none adverse reactions. Unsurprisingly, it can be used simultaneously with other antitumor prescriptions to provide a better outcome for someone who is suffering from cancer.

Apparently, a team of researchers felt enthusiastic about using DCA with the most popular medication and decided to give it a shot against Colorectal Cancer. Soon they came to a few conclusions.

It appears that the combination of Dichloroacetate and 5-Fluorouracil hasa synergistic antitumor effect. The duet has the potential to eliminate larger masses of Colorectal Cancer cells when used simultaneously. It is also possible that this new way of treatment can be more health-preserving and less toxic because of the lower doses required to achieve desirable therapeutic effects.

First of all, let us briefly remember some facts about 5-Fluorouracil.  For decades, it has been a classic choice for treating gastrointestinal tumors (including Colorectal Cancer) as well as other malignancies.  Anyone who is diagnosed with progressed CRC will most likely receive 5-FU as chemotherapy.

However, the problem is that it seems to be quite difficult to choose the adequate dosing and the right scheduling to achieve maximum results while avoiding unpleasant side effects. 5-Fluorouracil is known to be one of the few drugs which have dramatic toxicity shifts depending on the quantity.  

The medication is not without flaws, the drug may cause major toxicity to the bone marrow and provoke myelosuppression which can end up in weakness as well as impaired immune system. Other minor side effects include classical adverse reactions which are often experienced with most of chemotherapy (etc. mucositis, nausea and so forth).

Naturally, all of this motivates us to find out ways to avoid such grim outcomes while preserving the healing effect. Currently combination therapy with 5-FU is used widely in the hope of finding relatively safe and effective regimens.

By this time, most of us have probably heard about DCA and what it does. With the help of dichloroacetate we can attempt to restore the mitochondrial function, reverse the Warburg effect and promote natural programmed cell-death (apoptosis) in malignant cancer cells.
The substance is not only relatively cheap, selectively targets cancer cells, does not harm healthy organs and proves to be quite effective. Taking all of this into consideration, DCA appears to be a fine candidate, which could help those who are fighting colon cancer.

With this in mind, recently a handful of scientists from the Third Military Medical university decided to examine the possible outcome of DCA and 5-Fluorouracil combination on Colorectal cancer. After a series of experiments they presented their findings. The results were impressive.
It was proven that dichloroacetate not only leads to natural cell death in CRC cells, it also enhances the clinical activity of 5-Fluorouracil serving as a great, potential synergistic component in combination therapy. This means that DCA can be used with the majority of conventional colorectal cancer treatment options.

On the whole, a couple of things seem clear – it is difficult to accurately predict how new ways of antitumor treatment could affect patients suffering from cancer. Nevertheless, we know that DCA does not provoke any significant health issues. Bearing this in mind, it is safe to claim that when dealing with CRC, dichloroacetate could provide benefits.

It’s great to know that the results of DCA + 5-FU treatment in vitro appear to show splendid outcome on CRC cultures. However, we must be aware that the original 5-Fluorouracil treatment should not be totally replaced as it can be supported with the synergism of dichloroacetate.    

Finally, who knows? Maybe this will become the more safe, the more effective way to approach Colorectal cancer?

If you’re interested in the study, please find out more below:
Synergistic Antitumor Effect of Dichloroacetate in Combination with 5-Fluorouracil in Colorectal Cancer

The post DCA and 5-Fluorouracil combination – twice as good results on Colorectal Cancer appeared first on DCA Guide.

Dr. Akbar Khan, the medical director at Medicor Cancer Centre located in Toronto, Canada gives an excellent lecture on DCA Therapy based on his experience treating patients with Sodium Dichloroacetate. At the time of this presentation, he had treated over 1500 patients with the help of DCA.

In this lecture Dr. Akbar Khan explains what is DCA and how it interacts with the human body. The doctor reviews the infamous Michelakis glioblastoma study as well as other published and unpublished cancer treatment cases using DCA.        

In summary, he addresses these key points:

• How DCA works against cancer cells,
• What kind of cancers can be treated with dichloroacetate,
• Can DCA work synergistically with some of the widely available chemotherapies or medications,
• Side effects of DCA overdose,
• Other health benefits that can be achieved with the use of this molecule,
• What kind of routine blood tests should be done,
• Sample DCA protocol and interesting facts.

We believe this lecture will provide a perfect introduction into DCA therapy.

The post [Video] Khan Hippocrates Lecture on DCA Therapy appeared first on DCA Guide.

Glioblastoma is known to be an aggressive form of brain cancer with high resistance to cell death and poor response to existing healing methods. All of this leaves us keen on exploring new treatment possibilities.

Not long ago, a medical science enthusiast Doctor Evangelos Michelakis and his team a performed series of research related to the treatment of GBM (Glioblastoma multiforme). It was figured out that an ideal therapeutic agent should be able to cross the blood brain barrier and selectively affect cancer cells without harming the healthy tissue of the body.

Indeed, their choice, Sodium Dichloroacetate, had such characteristics and appeared to display no hematologic, cardiac, renal or hepatic toxicity. This led the researchers to one of the most notable studies related to DCA with live patients, which later on guided to the following discoveries.

DCA’s Effects on Cancer Cell Death and Tumor Growth

It appears that DCA induces cancer cell death, decreases the tumor vascularity and slows down the growth of the Glioblastoma malignancy. Most importantly, it seems that Dichloroacetate could serve effectively in combination therapy with other treatments against this particular type of deadly brain cancer.

DCA for cancer causes apoptosis, slows down tumor growth and reduces blood vessel formation in tumors.

Sodium Dichloroacetate Slowing Down Blood Vessel Formation in Glioblastoma

Since Glioblastoma multiforme is a significantly vascular tumor, the process of new blood vessel growth carries a huge impact in determining the cancers nourishment and expansion. Sadly, the acidic environment of the malignant cells also promotes the breakdown of the interstitial matrix which leads to metastasis through blood vessels and the worsening of the cancer-sufferers condition. Surprisingly, it appeared that DCA slowed down the formation of new capillaries in Glioblastoma. The post-DCA brain cancer tissue had significantly decreased vascularity and a reduced network of blood vessels.

Furthermore, it was demonstrated that DCA promotes apoptosis and decreases cancer growth in Glioblastomas.Not all drugs are able to cross the blood-brain barrier, but apparently dichloroacetate had been just the right size to complete such a task and induce its specific anti-cancer effect.

DCA in Combination Therapy for Glioblastoma

The team of scientists had a remarkable opportunity to compare pre-DCA and post-DCA treatment brain tissue of live patients. They found out that after the treatment the tissue exhibited fewer cancer cells, which was a result of an increased number of malignant cell death and reduced proliferation of Glioblastoma multiforme. The brain scan images displayed the same pleasing results:

Effects of DCA for Glioblastoma. Sodium dichloroacetate treatment for cancer

Finally, the study proved that DCA in combination with other treatments could be a promising way to fight GBM. The researchers suggest that a non-toxic substance like dichloroacetate could be used before as well as after radiotherapy and surgery. They also mention that DCA may increase the potential of standard therapies.

Currently, TMZ (temozolomide) serves as a popular choice of medication against GBM. The study suggests that the cancer treatment effect can be further increased by combining Sodium dichloroacetate and Temozolomide.

This information leaves us thrilled and guessing – could this be a new effective approach towards this incurable disease?

If you’re interested in the study and Sodium dichloroacetates potential on cancer, please read more below:
Metabolic Modulation of Glioblastoma with Dichloroacetate

The post Potential Glioblastoma cancer cure with the help of DCA appeared first on DCA Guide.

There has been a constantly growing international interest in dichloroacetate as a potential new anticancer drug, which unlike traditional chemotherapy drugs causes little to no adverse reactions. A previously done study by the infamous Dr. E. Michelakis revealed that the therapeutic efficiency of DCA could be increased when combined with DNA Methylation inhibitors such as Vidaza (Azacitidine).

After this speculation a group of researchers performed a study, which confirmed this hypothesis and concluded that dichloroacetate could be used together with other anticancer treatment drugs such as Vidaza or Dacogen in order to achieve better results at lower concentrations. The study also discovered a lot of other interesting key points related to the subject.

To begin with, the study found out that the SLC5AB structures are required for the transportation of DCA into the tumor cells. This was especially evident in breast cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer cells.

The research group revealed that dichloroacetate enters the cells via the SMCT1 (sodium-coupled monocarboxylate transporters) or the SLC5AB transporters (based on the Human Genome organization‘s nomenclature). This is really important since now we can learn which kind of drugs go well with dichloroacetate. In addition, we can also understand which substances can block us from achieving the desired effect of DCA.

Subsequently the investigation has shown that Sodium dichloroacetate induced tumor cell death requires active SLC5AB to take place. If the cells have altered DCA transporters, the therapeutic effect declines. On the other hand, the study did demonstrate that DCA induces higher apoptosis rates in cancer cells, which are abundant with SLC5AB transporters. This gave us an idea that you could achieve better antitumor treatment results if you combined regiments, which stimulate SLCA5AB expression and have DCA in them.

This may also be true because drugs like Vidaza (5′-azacytidine) and Dacogen (decitobine) prevent the increased DNA Methylation in tumor cells and thus preserve the expression as well as the structure of the SL5A8 transporters. In addition, this form of combination therapy reduces the quantity of dichloroacetate needed.

This way Sodium dichloroacetate displays stronger anti-tumor effects and can be taken for years because the possibility of any side effects such as neuropathy becomes close to zero.

We are happy to hear that DCA has the potential of being a life-saving treatment that could be strengthened with additional use of DNA Methylation inhibition drugs.

The recent findings of the study provide a handful of evidence that this type of combination therapy could help more people battle cancer in the future.

If you’re interested in the study, please find out more below:
Role of SLC5A8, a plasma membrane transporter and a tumor suppressor

The post Anticancer drug combination with DCA could make therapy even more effective appeared first on DCA Guide.

Recently, substantial evidence from experiments in vitro as well as experiments in vivo models has shown that DCA can be useful in treating various types of cancer in humans. This was later on confirmed by clinical trials as well as numerous real life clinical case studies that greatly surprised the science community. One of the most attractive qualities of Sodium dichloroacetate resides in its safety and tolerability, which make it a very desirable research subject in the field of cancer treatment.

For some time it was thought that DCA would most likely be ineffective against neuroblastoma (NB), however, a recent study proved otherwise and brought to light relatively unexpected results.

Surprisingly, dichloroacetate appears to have a positive therapeutic effect against malignant NB tumor growth. The study has proven that DCA works well against poorly differentiated (more aggressive) neuroblastoma cells. It was able to reduce NB tumor size as well as stop their further growth.

Firstly, the researchers discovered that DCA reduces cancer cell proliferation. At the end of the study, the scientists revealed that DCA treatment on neuroblastoma cells worked by inducing a dose-dependent cell cycle delay. To put it in a nutshell, the larger amount of dichloroacetate you take, the stronger it stops the NB cell division. This halts the expansion of the cancer and possibly decreases the aggressiveness of these tumors.

Furthermore, the study found out that even though the DCA treatment couldn’t provide solid results on well differentiated and less aggressive NB cancer cells, DCA did prove to be effective against poorly differentiated and malignant neuroblastoma cells. Prior to the research it was believed that DCA had no action on NB cancer at all.

Ultimately the most appealing discovery was that DCA works on human neuroblastoma tumor cells.

The experimental 4 week treatment resulted in a significant NB tumor mass reduction as shown above. It is important to note that the effectiveness of the treatment appears to be related to the size of the dose.

2,5 mg/kg doses decreased the NB tumor size by 30%.
25 mg/kg doses shrunk the tumors by 55%.

All in all, the research outcome made it clear that DCA can be considered a promising substance against cancer. The results of the study support the view of DCA as a very selective drug. If done right, it could be capable of helping NB anticancer treatments in the future without providing considerable adverse reactions.

If you would be interested to find out more, please do so below:
*Dichloroacetate inhibits neuroblastoma growth by specifically acting against malignant undifferentiated cells

The post Neuroblastoma growth inhibition by Dichloroacetate appeared first on DCA Guide.

Just recently, dichloroacetate has drawn attention as a novel, yet a simple and cheap therapy option that could change the way we approach a lot of oncological illnesses. Considering that all tumors need nutrients to grow, it seems reasonable that cutting of the food supply for cancer can be one of the ways we could finally cure it. However, it is not that simple.

One cannot simply starve and eliminate cancer, because the tumor starts getting its nutrients from other sources than the food that we consume. Think about it – if we avoid eating for a day or two, we do not fall straight into hypoglycemic coma. A human being can live for 1-2 months without food as long as there is an adequate water intake. This means that our body has mechanisms, which keep the glucose stable in our blood.

Therefore, avoiding food overall is not an option. To treat cancer successfully, we need tools that keep it from feeding and growing. Could we use something to inhibit the fuel for tumors? It looks like Sodium dichloroacetate could be one of the molecules that would let us achieve this, because it selectively deprives cancer cells from glucose. In 2007, researchers from North America discovered that this old drug could be repurposed to target glycolytic tumors. On top of that, it was already known that it produces limited adverse effects on healthy organs. Since then a lot of studies have been directed towards this relatively simple substance.

A recent research paper aimed to explain the main differences on how such anticancer drugs perform in laboratory cell cultures and in live tumor models. Surprisingly, the study revealed that DCA works better in live organisms such as mice than in Petri dishes with cancer cell lines. And there are a couple of reasons for that. One of the main points is the fact that anticancer medications generally affect tumor cells quite different in vitro than in vivo. Imagine, when scientists test anti-cancer therapy concepts in a cell-culture dish, the cancer cells are surrounded by 5 times more oxygen and at least 10 times more glucose molecules than a real-life tumor would be in a living organism. Just a few of these changes can totally alter the way the tumor cells respond to experimental therapy.

During the research, the scientist team noted that medications like Sodium dichloroacetate may have little effect on cell cultures compared to real tumor models in animals. The opposite can sometimes also be true. Some experimental treatments can only be useful in Petri dishes with artificial, non existing environments. For example, 2- deoxyglucose is an effective substance against cancer, but, unfortunately, it can cause severe side effects in living organisms and thus is not acceptable as a therapeutic agent.

The good news is that DCA is relatively non-toxic and seems to have a greater anticancer effect in vivo than in vitro. Which basically means that dichloroacetate has better potential to heal cancer in living beings and not in laboratory dishes.  This information is eye opening for future research and could be vital for the upcoming studies to determine how well DCA works as a single treatment or in combination therapy with existing medications against tumors.

This should be closely considered and kept in mind in the future experiments while trying to evaluate the effectiveness of new healing substances.


Ultimately, it remains evident that dichloroacetate deserves more attention because of its powerful potential to fight cancer. More research could be extremely helpful in uncovering answers how to integrate Sodium dichloroacetate with chemotherapy, target therapy or immunotherapy.

How could we avoid peripheral neuropathy completely or what drugs serve in combined anticancer treatments? Hopefully, the picture becomes clearer as time goes by. Till then, it is evident that animal models will remain the best selection to determine the most promising therapeutic combination.

If you’re interested in the study, please read more below:
Anticancer drugs that target metabolism is dichloroacetate

The post Drugs against cancer: is DCA the new paradigm? appeared first on DCA Guide.