If this isn't bullshit, they finally found a cure for cancer...

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

...and nobody gave a shit. http://www.moneytrendsresearch.com/scientists-cure-cancer-but-no-one-takes-notice/

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

More: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/05/dichloroacetate_and_cancer.php

[Cain]

Was just about to post this: http://www.dca.med.ualberta.ca/Home/Updates/2010-05-12_Update.cfm

No conclusions can be made on whether the drug is safe or effective in patients with this form of brain cancer, due to the limited number of patients tested by the study's leads Drs Michelakis and Petruk. Researchers emphasize that use of DCA by patients or physicians, supplied from for-profit sources or without close clinical observation by experienced medical teams in the setting of research trials, is not only inappropriate but may also be dangerous. The U of A results are encouraging and support the need for larger clinical trials with DCA. This work is also one of the first in humans to support the emerging idea that altering the metabolism of tumors is a new direction in the treatment of cancer, Michelakis and Petruk said.

The research team hopes to secure additional funding to continue the ongoing trials with DCA at the University of Alberta. Further studies would include more patients with brain cancer, and test the combination of DCA and standard chemotherapies, eventually including patients from other academic health sciences centres.

So it's limited to brain cancers, and requires more research.  And it can be dangerous if dosed incorrectly.

[Faust]

It's not a cure, it's just another potential lead.
These appear all the time.

One of the pharmaceuticals my friend was working for had developed a lung cancer treatment that caused metastatic tumors to stop growing or go into remission. However the side effects were potentially fatal it was incredibly hard on the respiratory system and if it got introduced to other parts of the body could cause seizures.

A couple of years ago someone developed a laser treatment for reducing tumors, the heat generated would have destroyed whatever part of the body it was deployed on.

One step forward two steps back and all that.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Of course. It's still early.

But it looks good so far. I'm guardedly optimistic about this, it's a new direction.

And it really points up a problem in the way the funding works.