Interesting news from Canada today in the field of cancer research. Usually I don't get into the medical journals, but certainly this is worth mentioning!

It appears that researchers from the University of Alberta have discovered what may be a major step in the right direction when it comes to actually curing cancer! The answer apparently lies within the chemical, dichloroacetate, or DCA. DCA has been shown to be effective in treating, reducing and often killing lung, breast and brain tumors in lab mice. In most cases the mice make a complete recovery with no obvious side effects.

How does this miracle cure work, you ask? Well, I'll be happy to tell you. Cancer is unique in that it makes its own energy throughout the cell body instead of using organelles as power stations, as normal healthy cells do. It has been long assumed that the mitochondria were irreparably damaged by the cancer, thus forcing them to find alternate methods of energy production to survive. However, in these tests, the addition of DCA to the cancerous cell has awakened the mitochondria, causing the cancerous cells to die.

In normal cells, mitochondria activate apoptosis, a process by which abnormal cells are destroyed from the inside out. To circumvent this problem, cancerous cells shut down the mitochondria and energize themselves through a process called glycolysis. The answer now seems shockingly simple... wake up the mitochondria (see below, click for a larger image).
Of course, the question now becomes, "why isn't this on the front page of every newspaper in America?" As with everything, there is a sinister underside to this issue. DCA is already in use, actively treating some metabolic problems in patients as we speak. However, the drug was issued without a patent. This would, of course be incredibly good news as a drug without a patent could be widely marketed in generic forms and sold to the public at bargain basement prices. Some estimate that the cost of a dose of DCA to a cancer patient could be as low as two dollars and could be quickly disbursed to the world after passing human testing.

So, who would stand between the public and a cheap, available cure for a disease that, in this state alone, will kill 9,360 people next year?

Of course!

A drug without a patent is a useless to pharmaceutical companies that turn staggering profits as the result of cancer TREATMENT... not cancer cures. Each year Americans spend billions of dollars treating this disease, so imagine the impact on the industry if those same Americans were able to completely eradicate their cancer with the pennies in their couch cushions. Many, many overpaid slime balls would find themselves out of a job... perish the thought!

They aren't alone.

The American Cancer Society, an allegedly impartial body, free of the crushing fist of government, accounts for 1/9 of the overall health budget of the United States. These people seem insulated from scorn, as it's nearly impossible to throw stones at a group that we believe to be actively searching for a cure to the modern equivalent of the plague. However, just like any other government body, the ACS is wrought with corruption. I won't try to explain how, I'll just let Dr. Ralph Moss, a leading proponent of alternative treatment and research, do the talking:

If you look at the board of directors of MSK [Memorial Sloane Kettering] you will find that the drug industry has a dominant position on that board. One company in particular, Bristol Myers, which produces between 40-50% of all the chemotherapy in the world, and they have top positions at MSK hospital.

When asked if this constituted a serious conflict of interest, Dr. Moss replied:

They are selling their own drugs to that particular hospital but they have written into the by-laws of the centre that it does not constitute a conflict of interest to sell their company drugs to the centre. They get around it by not taking a salary. They are not paid, they are volunteers. Look what happens. You have a man like Benno Schmidt, who was first head of the president's cancer panel under Nixon, then becomes head of MSK. He then goes on using the knowledge he gained at MSK to set up his own drug company to make tens of millions of dollars. [Another revolving door.] You bet, and a big one. We have had 50 years of American Cancer Society (ACS) brainwashing on the question of cancer, so most people out there believe we are making progress in the war on cancer. We are not, we are losing the war.

Of course, simply blaming the ACS and pharmaceutical lobby for this type of thing isn't enough. There's always someone at the top actively trying to screw us over... luckily, in one case, it happens to be one of my favorite targets.

In 1974, government research was conducted in an effort to prove that smoking marijuana caused irreparable damage to brain tissue. Although it was never proven that the drug was damaging the brain, a startling discovery was made. THC, one of the active components of marijuana, was actually causing brain tumors to shrink and in some instances completely die. The DEA immediately shut the study down and President Gerald Ford, seeing the promise of THC but still remaining completely out of touch with reality, gave exclusive license to... you guessed it... the pharmaceutical companies to develop a form of THC that would give patients the benefit of the drug without the "high."

Apparently there is no worse thing in the world than having a pleasant experience derive from the drug that's actively treating your cancer... not even the cancer itself.

In 1983, the Reagan/Bush administration began pressuring universities and research centers nationwide to destroy any studies of the medical advantages of THC created between 1966-76. Since those requests the information, according to Dr. Manuel Guzman of Madrid, has been "nearly impossible" to obtain.

In the time it has taken me to research and write this, four people have died in the United States of breast cancer alone. Between fifteen and thirty people have died from lung cancer and three have died from prostate cancer. As these lives tick away our government plays moral and political games built around a personal ideology, not the good of the nation. I don't know how to stop this, or if there's any way to do so, however I do know that education is the first step. Knowing what you're up against makes the fight considerably easier... just something to keep in mind when you take to the polls in the coming years and shape the future of not only your nation, but possibly your own life.