Khan A, Andrews D, Shainhouse J, Blackburn AC. Long-term stabilization of metastatic melanoma with sodium dichloroacetate. World J Clin Oncol 2017; 8(4): 371-377 [PMID: 28848705 DOI: 10.5306/wjco.v8.i4.371]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Akbar Khan, MD, Medical Director, Medicor Cancer Centres Inc, 4576 Yonge St., Suite 301, Toronto, ON M2N 6N4, Canada. akhan@medicorcancer.com
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
World J Clin Oncol. Aug 10, 2017; 8(4): 371-377 Published online Aug 10, 2017. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v8.i4.371
Long-term stabilization of metastatic melanoma with sodium dichloroacetate
Akbar Khan, Doug Andrews, Jill Shainhouse, Anneke C Blackburn
Akbar Khan, Doug Andrews, Medicor Cancer Centres Inc, Toronto, ON M2N 6N4, Canada
Jill Shainhouse, Insight Naturopathic Clinic, Toronto, ON M4P 1N9, 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 assisted in development of the natural medication protocol for reduction of DCA side effects, and wrote a portion of the case report; Shainhouse J treated the patient with natural therapy; Blackburn AC interpreted the case report in the context of the literature on in vitro and in vivo DCA research, wrote parts of the introduction and discussion, and reviewed the manuscript overall.
Informed consent statement: The patient described in this manuscript has given consent to publish his 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: January 30, 2017 Peer-review started: February 12, 2017 First decision: March 28, 2017 Revised: May 5, 2017 Accepted: May 30, 2017 Article in press: May 31, 2017 Published online: August 10, 2017
Abstract
Sodium dichloroacetate (DCA) has been studied as a metabolic cancer therapy since 2007, based on a publication from Bonnet et al demonstrating that DCA can induce apoptosis (programmed cell death) in human breast, lung and brain cancer cells. Classically, the response of cancer to a medical therapy in human research is measured by Response Evaluation Criterial for Solid Tumours definitions, which define “response” by the degree of tumour reduction, or tumour disappearance on imaging, however disease stabilization is also a beneficial clinical outcome. It has been shown that DCA can function as a cytostatic agent in vitro and in vivo, without causing apoptosis. A case of a 32-year-old male is presented in which DCA therapy, with no concurrent conventional therapy, resulted in regression and stabilization of recurrent metastatic melanoma for over 4 years’ duration, with trivial side effects. This case demonstrates that DCA can be used to reduce disease volume and maintain long-term stability in patients with advanced melanoma.
Core tip: Sodium dichloroacetate (DCA) has been studied as a metabolic cancer therapy since 2007. It has been shown that DCA therapy can result in a classic response which is measured by reduction or disappearance of tumours on imaging. However, DCA can also halt cancer cell growth without causing apoptosis (cytostatic effect). This can result in long-term stabilization of metastatic cancer. We present a case of oral DCA therapy resulting in reduction and stabilization of metastatic melanoma in a 32-year-old male for over 4 years, with only minor side effects.
