Copyright
©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Oct 16, 2016; 4(10): 336-343
Published online Oct 16, 2016. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v4.i10.336
Published online Oct 16, 2016. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v4.i10.336
Long-term stabilization of stage 4 colon cancer using sodium dichloroacetate therapy
Akbar Khan, Douglas Andrews, Medicor Cancer Centres Inc., Toronto, ON M2N 6N4, Canada
Anneke C Blackburn, The John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
Author contributions: Khan A treated the patient and wrote most of the case report; Andrews D treated the patient, designed the natural therapy protocols, and co-wrote the case report; Blackburn AC performed in vitro and in vivo work demonstrating DCA’s effects as a cytostatic agent, and wrote the parts of the case report dealing with the in vitro and in vivo DCA research.
Institutional review board statement: Not applicable.
Informed consent statement: The patient described in this manuscript has given consent to publish her case anonymously.
Conflict-of-interest statement: One of the authors (Khan) administers dichloroacetate therapy for cancer patients through Medicor Cancer Centres at a cost, and without profit. The clinic is owned by a family member of this author. The other authors have nothing to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Akbar Khan, MD, Medical Director, Medicor Cancer Centres Inc., 4576 Yonge St., Suite 301, Toronto, ON M2N 6N4, Canada. akhan@medicorcancer.com
Telephone: +1-416-2270037 Fax: +1-416-2271915
Received: April 30, 2016
Peer-review started: May 3, 2016
First decision: June 17, 2016
Revised: July 23, 2016
Accepted: August 6, 2016
Article in press: August 8, 2016
Published online: October 16, 2016
Processing time: 167 Days and 20 Hours
Peer-review started: May 3, 2016
First decision: June 17, 2016
Revised: July 23, 2016
Accepted: August 6, 2016
Article in press: August 8, 2016
Published online: October 16, 2016
Processing time: 167 Days and 20 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Oral dichloroacetate sodium (DCA) has been investigated as a novel metabolic therapy for various cancers. Response to therapy in human studies is measured by standard RECIST definitions, which define “response” by the degree of tumour reduction, or tumour disappearance on imaging. However, DCA can also act as a cytostatic agent, without causing apoptosis (programmed cell death). A case is presented in which oral DCA therapy resulted in tumour stabilization of stage 4 colon cancer in a 57 years old female for a period of nearly 4 years, with no serious toxicity.