Can you help cure cancer?
Here’s the article that DH showed me, that got us looking for where/how we could help: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16776882/site/newsweek/
If there were a magic bullet, though, it might be something like dichloroacetate, or DCA, a drug that kills cancer cells by exploiting a fundamental weakness found in a wide range of solid tumors. So far, though, it kills them just in test tubes and in rats infected with human cancer cells; it has never been tested against cancer in living human beings. There are countless compounds that can do the same thing that never turn into viable treatments. But DCA has one big advantage over most of those: it is an existing drug whose side effects are well-studied and relatively tolerable. Also, it’s a small molecule that might be able to cross the blood-brain barrier to reach otherwise intractable brain tumors.
One of the great things about DCA is that it’s a simple compound, in the public domain, and could be produced for pennies a dose. But that’s also a problem, because big drug companies are unlikely to spend a billion dollars or so on large-scale clinical trials for a compound they can’t patent. So Michelakis and his colleagues Stephen Archer and John Mackey, with the support of the University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board, are embarking on the process themselves, hoping to interest foundations or private philanthropists in underwriting their research
Dr Michelakis’s DCA website is here: http://www.depmed.ualberta.ca/dca/
If you scroll to the bottom of the page, there’s a place where you can Click to Donate.
We’re going to donate $20. It’s not much, I know. But, if you and I both donate $20, then they have $40. And, if you convince someone else to do it, they’ll have $60. So, the big drug companies aren’t interested? That’s fine - I understand - they’re businesses, not charities. Doesn’t mean we can’t do it ourselves, though 
