Simple Cure for Cancer Found?

On the eve of May 15, 2011, news about a simple yet possible cure for cancer, discovered by Canadian Researchers, has floated around the Internet at an alarming rate; one can even say it’s gone viral. However, another thing that seems to accompany this piece of news is a simple, yet striking question: Why isn’t anyone paying attention to this astounding discovery?

For years, the disease “cancer” has plagued and afflicted nations. More often than not, victims of cancer lose hope because of the lack of answers the medical field has provided for them. The National Cancer Institute states that “Cancer is a term used for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control and are able to invade other tissues. Cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems.” According to the Center for Disease Control some of the top cancers include Breast Cancer [in women], Lung Cancer and Colorectal [or better known as Colon] Cancer claiming hundreds of thousands of people. Researchers and Pharmaceutical Companies have spent many years and remarkable amounts of funds to try and find a “cure” although, it seems that there has already been a cure all along.
Through a series of tests on human cells using dicholoroacetate (DCA), best known for its use in treatments for metabolic disorders, Canadian Researchers have discovered that [DCA] has killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells while leaving the body’s healthy cells unharmed. When tested on rats that were inflicted with severe tumors, the very same tumors shrank immensely once water with added DCA was given to the same rats. So the question becomes, why isn’t this drug being mass produced and mass distributed to cancer patients?
Nutrition And Diet News, an online newspaper, states “this drug doesn’t require a patent, so anyone can employ it widely and cheaply compared to the costly cancer drugs made by major pharmaceutical companies.” It goes on to explain that the body has a “natural cancer fighting human cell, the mitochondria” and that “they need to be triggered to work.” Although, “scientists used to think these mitochondria cells were damaged and thus ineffective against cancer” and so scientists turned their attention to an alternative method. However, “DCA doesn’t rely on [the alternative method] instead [it relies] on [the cell’s] mitochondria; it triggers the mitochondria which in turn fights the cancer cells.”
Unfortunately, the DCA method “cannot be patented” according to Nutrition And Diet News and so there’s no money in it for the pharmaceutical companies. These same companies will not be interested in investing money to mass produce these drugs if their profits do not ultimately match or exceed their investments. Mrs. Sara Almeida, a science teacher at the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering who also teaches Biology, states that she is “not surprised” that the pharmaceutical companies aren’t for the mass production of DCA. “Medicine is a big business and I’m sure they’ll find a spin-off of [the method] and be able to patent it that way.” Although Almeida claims that “[the researchers lab data] seems promising,” she argues that “[the researchers] live in a lab whereas we don’t, so there could be numerous variables that could alter the results of [DCA].” Only time will tell what will happen.