A Quiet Walk With Death
March 23rd, 2008

:: Chapter I ::
Yesterday at 10:30am I took an experimental cancer drug called DCA. The drug itself, Dichchloroacetate, has been around for decades, and has proved generally safe and effective at treating a rare childhood metabolic disorder in which mitochondria, the cells’ powerhouses, are dormant or stunted. DCA restores healthy mitochondrial function.
Another role of Mitochondria in the cell is to act as the regulator of apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Mitochondria keep a constant vigil over their host cell and if anything too suspicious goes down, anything that would risk passing on errant DNA for example, mitochondria turn on the auto-destruct mechanism. In most cancerous cells, normal mitrochondrial function is suppressed, and apoptosis is brought to a halt. Decades ago it was proposed that restoring mitochondrial function might be an effective cancer-fighting strategy.
Enter DCA. The cancer world is aflutter with talk of the potential of this old, cheap drug with minimal side effects (*see below). There is currently a clinical trial being conducted for DCA (the first) in Alberta, Canada, testing its efficacy against several forms of late-stage cancer. Outside of the clinical trial, several forums and discussion boards have been started where cancer patients and their care-givers come to share information on DCA mechanisms, patient progress reports, and dosages. One interesting discussion point on the forums, is the relationship between DCA and caffeine. There is reason to suspect that caffeine potentiates DCA, allowing for a smaller dose of the drug to have a greater effect when taken in conjunction with coffee or strong black tea. I spent weeks researching what I could of DCA, tracked some down, and (given the results of my last MRI) decided to self administer.
I’m a big guy, and historically very drug-resistant. Despite this, and in the name of responsibility to myself, I opted for an especially low-dose. A paper produced by the Alberta clinical trial group cited (to clarify: cited, for their study, not recommended to anyone else) a dosage from between 10mg – 100mg per kilogram of body weight to initiate anti-tumor activity. I opted for 9 mg/kg, just below the lowest range, and then divided that dosage in half with intent to take part at the beginning of the day, and the remainder twelve hours later. With my mother at hand to verify dosages and watch my progress, I dissolved 4.5mg of the white powder into an 8oz glass of water and drank it. I waited about one half hour, and then began slowly drinking a cup of strong coffee. About thirty minutes later the world began dissolving. Read the rest of this entry »










