New Cancer Drug

Scott Kustes on 18 Jan 2007 07:43 am

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This is an interesting article from New Scientist that I happened across a few days ago. They have found a drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), that turns off the immortality of cancer cells. Cancer cells grow into a tumor because they lack the normal mitochondrial activity that signals for apoptosis, or cell death. This drug reactivates the mitochondria so that they can trigger normal cell death, returning cancerous cells to the status of every other cell. The real beauty is that it has no patent and can therefore be manufactured on the cheap. We still lack human trials, but this could be promising.

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