The study aim was to see what the tolerable dose for a future study might be. 17 patients ranging from metastatic breast ca to unresectable colon ca were studied from 2014-2016.
Patients were given either 500, 1000, or 2000mg of what must be a truly horrible liquid to drink and then watched for adverse outcomes.
Most patients discontinued treatment due to disease progression, and patients in the 2000mg dosage group had trouble tolerating the medication.
Anyway, not to knock the study, hope things pan out, but to market this as the "achilles heel of cancer" is, well, a bit hard to swallow.
But I think the point is not that they found a chemical that can inhibit CA, it's the idea that targeting CA could be useful. From that point of view, CA dependence really is the "Achilles' heel" of tumors, since tumors (presumably) require vascularization, CA prevents hypoxic regions from acidifying and CA inhibitors will halt tumor growth.
If the initial chemical this team found is not good, no problem, another can be found.
Interesting that I found, on a hunch, that aspirin is also a CA inhibitor[0] (could explain some of its cancer-reducing effect), and further that aspirin derivatives are also promising CA inhibitors[1] (targeting CAIX).
Putting all that together it seems there's a ripe avenue of research for targeting the Achilles' heel of tumors: find CA inhibitors derived from already well-tolerated cheap widely available generic drug (aspirin), and pursue those that are safe and effective in humans. I'm optimistic! :P ;) xX
The study aim was to see what the tolerable dose for a future study might be. 17 patients ranging from metastatic breast ca to unresectable colon ca were studied from 2014-2016.
Patients were given either 500, 1000, or 2000mg of what must be a truly horrible liquid to drink and then watched for adverse outcomes.
Most patients discontinued treatment due to disease progression, and patients in the 2000mg dosage group had trouble tolerating the medication.
Anyway, not to knock the study, hope things pan out, but to market this as the "achilles heel of cancer" is, well, a bit hard to swallow.