Health Canada has approved the first human trial of an experimental cancer drug called dichloroacetate, or DCA, in people with an advanced form of an aggressive brain cancer.

The molecule has drawn international attention after the University of Alberta's Dr. Evangelos Michelakis published promising results in January showing it significantly shrank tumours in rats. This new trial will give doctors a clue as to whether the research's impressive results will make the jump into human subjects.

"Typically from the time you report results in animals to the point that you test in a human being takes about three years, even with the support of the pharmaceutical industry," Michelakis said this week. "For us to have completed it in eight months is remarkable."

DCA is being prescribed in Toronto as an "off-label" drug at Medicor Cancer Centres, the Star's Stuart Laidlaw reported earlier this week. That means it's a legal drug, but is not being used the way it was intended. "We're pretty comfortable saying the drug does work for some patients," says Dr. Akbar Khan, the clinic's medical director. About 40 of his patients are taking the drug.

The Alberta researchers hope to try the drug on up to 50 people with glioblastomas over the next 18 months. The first subjects could begin within a few weeks.

The research is being funded entirely by grants and donations. DCA, which has been used to treat certain rare metabolic disorders in humans, is cheap and can't be patented, which is why pharmaceutical companies aren't interested in helping develop it as a cancer therapy, Michelakis says.

The team has raised $800,000, enough to fund the first trial, and has a goal of $1.5 million.

There is a lot of interest in the therapy. Only a day after news of the approval was made public, at least 100 people called to volunteer for the trial. Callers had all types of cancer, but researchers say they have approval to test the drug only on people with the specific brain cancer glioblastoma.

Michelakis acknowledges that cancer therapies that are promising in animals often fizzle out when applied to humans. But he says the frenzy around DCA shows people are willing to come together to test out promising research, regardless of whether it will be profitable.

The appeal of DCA lies in its ability to target cancer cells while leaving other cells intact, eliminating severe side effects of conventional cancer therapies..