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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine

Look who’s at the ASCO Meeting too

It’s day three of the ASCO Meeting here in Chicago. So far, I have to say, it’s been a bit underwhelming. Unlike some years past, there don’t appear to have been any real blockbuster results to report; rather, lots of incremental studies were presented. There’s really only one study presented that I might blog, mainly […]

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Bioethics Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

An “arrogant medico” makes one last comment on dichloroacetate (DCA)

I love it. You see I noticed an old “friend,” the Herbinator, making this comment about me regarding dichloroacetate: I was listening to CBC Radio – the Current, as is my want, and there was a show on about DCA, or Dichloroacetic acid. DCA is a molecule so simple and cheap to make that drug […]

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Bioethics Cancer Clinical trials Medicine

A family practitioner and epidemiologist are prescribing dichloracetate (DCA) in Canada

It never seems to end, does it? I’m talking about the hype and questionable practices revolving around dichloroacetate (DCA), the small molecule chemotherapeutic agent that targets the Warburg effect, in essence normalizing the metabolism of tumor cells and thereby inhibiting their growth. (See here and here for more details.) A report by Evangelos Michelakis at […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine

An idea to promote innovation in cancer research

Over the last couple of months, I’ve written periodically about cancer research and the complaints that the present system of funding grants and of peer review stifles innovation, as well as whether ideas for which there is some evidence but which fall out of the mainstream are given a fair shake. My overall take has […]

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Clinical trials Medicine

Well, well, well, what have we here about the Avandia study?

I’ve been meaning to go through the recent meta-analysis of Avandia published by the New England Journal of Medicine that purported to show major increase in the risk for cardiac events (myocardial infarctions and cardiac death) in patients who use Avandia, but somehow never got around to it. I’m not sure I need to now, […]