You read that right. What is believed to be a cure for cancer was discovered more than a year ago.

But no one knows about it because of corporate greed.

Scientists from the University of Alberta believe that dichloroacetate (DCA) has proven effective in limiting and killing cancer growth in human tissues.

When cancer invades a cell, it can shut down the mitochondria that power the cell and instead uses glycolysis — the breaking down of glucose by cells in enzyme reactions —for energy. The side effect of that process is an increase in the production of lactic acid, which breaks down cell walls, allowing cancer to spread.

DCA revitalizes the mitochondria, allows the cell to initiate apoptosis (the procedure that allows a cell to die when damaged), and cuts down the production of lactic acid, thereby keeping new tumors from appearing.

The compound is odorless, colorless and tasteless and can be introduced into drinking water while still maintaining maximum effectiveness. It has been used for years to treat patients with mitochondrial disorders with minimal side effects.

The Alberta scientists reported that DCA eliminated lung, breast and brain cancers in human tissue cultures and massively shrank tumors in rats that were fed water laced with the compound.

The University of Alberta DCA Web site also states that, “being so small, [DCA] is easily absorbed in the body, and, after oral intake, it can reach areas in the body that other drugs cannot, making it possible to treat brain cancers, for example.”

Think about all of that for a moment.

Here we have a drug we know is safe for human use, can be administered in a glass of water and is cheap and easy to produce.

Why is this discovery not more publicized? Why is the University of Alberta struggling to find funding for this research?

Because pharmaceutical companies’ profits from treatments for cancer and other rare diseases make up a sizeable portion of their income.

In recent years, companies have been driving up the prices on a number of drugs for increased profit. The Associated Press reported that in 2006, Ovation Pharmaceuticals raised the price of Cosmegen, which treats a form of kidney cancer, 3,400 percent from $16.79 to $593.75.

Drug companies rely on the fact that they can patent a certain drug for a few years and make enormous profits on it until the patent runs out and generic brands can begin production at competitive rates. DCA is a non-patentable compound, so it can be produced generically immediately.

The loss of revenue on DCA coupled with the fact that drug companies could not profit from the new cure would seriously cripple the pharmaceutical industry.

The Food and Drug Administration’s decision to not approve DCA for human use may or may not be effected by economic concerns, but the American Cancer Society definitely suffers from pharmaceutical company influence.

The Cancer Prevention Coalition Web site says, “For years, the (American Cancer Society) demonstrated its allegiance to the multibillion-dollar cancer drug industry by aggressively attacking potential competitors through its ‘Committee on Unproven Methods of Cancer Management,’ created to ‘review’ unorthodox or alternative therapies.

‘This committee... invariably promoted mainstream, expensive and arguably toxic drugs patented by major pharmaceutical companies and opposed alternative or ‘unproven’ therapies, which are generally cheap, non-patentable, and minimally toxic.”

If pharmaceutical companies continue to place profit before progress, then it will be a sure bet that cures for a plethora of fatal diseases will never be widely available.

Zach Holder is a letters sophomore. His column appears every other Friday.