https://medicorcancer.com/wp-content/uploads/DCA-FAQs_form-Medicor.pdf
DCA (dichloroacetate) Frequently Asked Questions Updated Sept 12, 2012
Medicor Cancer Centres was the first cancer clinic in North America to begin prescribing DCA “off label” to cancer
patients (in April 2007) under the full supervision of a medical team. We consulted with the relevant regulatory
bodies in Canada and have been following their guidelines and policies. We would like to thank everyone who
has expressed an interest in our DCA therapy. We appreciate your feedback and encouragement. We would also
like to acknowledge and extend a special thanks to two of our patients who brought DCA to our attention, and
motivated us to begin DCA treatments. As of this latest update of FAQ, we have treated over 1100 patients with
DCA. This is greater than the sum of all patients in all of the human DCA clinical trials that have ever been
conducted (both cancer and non-cancer) put together! Even though we are not conducting a clinical trial, the
experience gained by treating over 1000 patients is extraordinary, and helps us to use DCA more safely and
effectively.
Background
In 2007 it was discovered that the drug DCA (dichloroacetate sodium) induced the death of human breast, lung
and brain cancer cells that were implanted into rats, while being non-toxic to healthy cells. This research was
published in Cancer Cell, 11, 37–51, January 2007. DCA has been found to kill cancer cells by a newly
discovered mechanism that appears to be common to several types of cancer. DCA works by turning on the
natural cell suicide system (called apoptosis) which is suppressed in cancerous cells, thus allowing them to die on
their own. DCA does not poison the cells like cytotoxic chemotherapy drugs. DCA also interferes with the cancer
cell’s use of glucose, starving the cell of energy. At the same time, it does not starve healthy cells in the body of
glucose.
DCA research has accelerated in the last 2 years. The latest research shows that DCA also kills many types of
cancer cells, and can boost the cancer-killing effects of radiation. The first formal human cancer research using
DCA was published in May 2010. It confirmed that DCA is an effective anti-cancer drug for treating glioblastoma
patients (Metabolic Modulation of Glioblastoma with Dichloroacetate, Science Translational Medicine, Vol 2, Issue
31).
MEDLINE is the largest medical database in the world, and contains information on published DCA research. This
database can be searched free of charge for those interested in reading DCA research, or at least the summaries
of the DCA publications: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=dichloroacetate%20cancer
Further research to determine how well DCA works against various cancers within the human body is ongoing:
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=dichloroacetate+cancer
What types of cancers does DCA work on?
Several publications demonstrate that DCA works in a variety of cancers. These include human studies / case
reports and lab studies (rat and in vitro). The cancer types studied so far are: colon, breast, prostate, ovarian,
brain (neuroblastoma), brain (glioblastoma), lung (carcinoid), uterus (cervix), uterus (endometrial), lymphoma
(non-Hodgkins), and cancer of unknown primary.
Observational DCA Data
For the first time in the world, on Dec 7, 2007 we publicly shared our observational data from the treatment of our
first 118 cancer patients with DCA. We updated our data in 2009 from treating over 347 patients. This can be
found at: http://www.medicorcancer.com/dca-data.html. Since clinical trial data is now emerging, we are no longer
collecting observational data. Instead, we are focusing our efforts on publishing our findings in reputable peerreviewed medical journals. Our first publication is: “Use of Oral Dichloroacetate for Palliation of Leg Pain Arising
