The Cuban lung cancer vaccine, CimaVax-EFG, has shown promising results in tests on more than 1,000 patients in Cuba, and is now slated for further clinical trials with British subjects. Scientists at the Molecular Immunological Center in Havana developed the world’s first therapeutic vaccine for the treatment of lung cancer in the course of 25 years of research into treatment of tobacco-related diseases.
The vaccine has even been effective in late stage lung cancer patients who did not respond to radiation or chemotherapy. Project director Gisela Gonzalez was quoted in China’s Xinhuanet as saying, “The drug could turn the cancer into a manageable, chronic disease by generating antibodies against the proteins which triggered the uncontrolled cell proliferation.”
Of course the development of wonder drugs is practically meaningless if people cannot afford them. Gonzalez noted that CimaVax-EFG is available, free of charge, at all hospitals throughout Cuba. Lung cancer kills approximately 5 million people annually according to the World Health Organization.
