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Reuters

Cuban scientists said on Tuesday the first vaccine to extend lives of lung cancer patients has been approved by Cuban authorities for use and is available in the island’s hospitals.

The drug, CimaVax EGF, has been shown to increase survival rates on average four to five months and much longer in some patients, they said in a news conference at Cuba’s Center of Molecular Immunology.

In contrast to chemotherapy, the traditional treatment for lung cancer, they said CimaVax EGF has few side effects because it is a modified protein that attacks only cancer cells.

They said it was the first lung cancer vaccine to be approved anywhere in the world, although there are others currently being tested.

“It’s the first vaccine for lung cancer registered in the world,” said Gisela Gonzalez, who headed the development of the vaccine, begun in 1992.

The drug is in various stages of clinical trials in a number of other countries and is most likely to be approved next in Peru, where it could be publicly available by year’s end, Gonzalez said.

She said several private companies had been licensed to market the vaccine, but it will be produced in Cuba. Cost for the treatment had not yet been determined, Gonzalez said.

Other cancer vaccines under development elsewhere include one made by Antigenics Inc against melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, and another made by Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc and licensed by drug giant Pfizer Inc that attacks glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and deadly type of brain tumor.

FOREIGNERS WELCOME

Tania Crombet, director of clinical investigations at Havana’s molecular immunology center, said people from outside Cuba can come to the island for treatment.

“It’s possible to provide this vaccine to any patient, because it’s available in Cuba, it’s approved by the Cuban drug agency so we can market the vaccine in Cuba and we can receive patients from outside,” she said.

The exception would probably be Americans, she said, who are restricted from Cuba travel by the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba in place since 1962.

“Even though there is a new therapeutic tool approved in Cuba they probably wouldn’t be able to come to Cuba to receive it because of the embargo,” Crombet said.

The drug has been approved for clinical trial in the United States, but its possible use there is at least two to three years away, Gonzalez said.

Cuba’s state-run biotechnology sector includes around 50 research and development centers and is considered one of the most advanced in the developing world.

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By Mary Murray | NBC News Havana Bureau Chief

A Cuban Scientific Research Institute just patented a promising new drug that it says helps terminal lung cancer patients live longer.

In some cases, the drug known as CimaVax EGF extended the lives of participants in the treatment trials by close to a year.

CimaVax EGF, is classified as a therapeutic vaccine, because it is composed of modified proteins that help the body recognize and destroy cancer cells for those already suffering from lung cancer. It does not prevent lung cancer.

“It is the first lung cancer vaccine to be patented in the world,” said Dr. Gisela Gonzalez, head of the team that researched and developed the drug through testing with hundreds of patients over 16 years.

She did point out that other countries are working on similar vaccines, but that they are still in the development stage.

Gonzalez cautioned that while it is “not a miracle drug,” she does believe it is a “breakthrough in treating terminally ill patients.”

While the research team would not identify any side effects of CimaVax EFG, Gonzalez claims it has numerous advantages over traditional treatments alone. Patients breathe easier, experience less fatigue, less pain and increased appetite. It is administered in conjunction with conventional treatments of chemo and radiotherapy.

CimaVax EGF is undergoing testing in other countries.

After Cuba concluded the Phase One study that determined safe dosage and the best way to administer the vaccine, Phase Two trials started in Cuba, Canada and England, said Gonzalez. This August additional ones begin in China and Peru. Already the vaccine is being registered in Malaysia for sale in Europe.

While testing has been approved by the U.S. government, clinical studies may not begin for at least two years.

The Phase Two studies that were conducted in Cuba and elsewhere took a look at how much longer patients lived with CimaVax EGF as compared to other treatments. Those given the vaccine lived on average 11.47 months compared to 5.33 months for terminal patients treated with only chemotherapy and/or radiation. In the best case scenarios, some fortunate patients lived for up to 18.53 months while taking the new vaccine, compared to other patients who lived for just 7.55 months while undergoing conventional treatment.

Given those clinical results, Cuba started Phase Three studies in the hope that CimaVax EGF could become the new standard of care in treating end stage lung cancer.

About 4,500 new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed annually in Cuba while the disease claims over 1.3 million deaths worldwide annually, with the highest rates in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Across the globe, lungs are the most common site of fatal cancers for both women and men. Lung cancer generally affects people over 50 who have a history of smoking, although other risk factors include exposure to second hand tobacco smoke or pollutant emissions from cars or factories.

CimaVax EGF could also prove effective in slowing other cancers, believes Dr. Tania Crombet, the team’s chief clinical researcher at Havana’s Center for Molecular Immunology. She said that researchers have begun testing CimaVax EGF’s effectiveness against breast, prostate, uterus and pancreas cancers.

Crombet also said CimaVax EGF is now available in Cuban hospitals for any patient, regardless of nationality. “We can market the vaccine in Cuba and receive patients from outside.”

And that could mean an influx of fresh, hard currency for the struggling island’s economy.

With more than 7,000 scientists dedicated to researching new drugs, Cuba has one of the most sophisticated biotech industries in the developing world. Last year the country earned $350 million from exporting 180 different medicines.

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Also I would like to know, being CimaVax EGF a vaccine, if it is one time shoot or if it is like chemion that you need to take it severla times.
Please any info or help you can give me would be great.

IF ANYBODY IS READING THIS BLOGS CAN PLEASE SEND ME SOME INFO IM INTERESTED IN THIS VACCINE FOR A PATIENT WITH NSCLC (NON SMALL CELL LUNG CANCER)
Please let me know at:

It’s hard to get any objective news or medicine exports out of Cuba. Also, since Cuba’s biotechnology system is not open for inspection, we have no way of knowing what their standards are or how accurate their testing or reporting is.

Just because you read this, doesn’t mean you can get the drug or even that it works.

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Can you please e-mail info on how to get treatment for my dad? he lives in Peru and has lung cancer (stage 4, small cell) He was diagnosed 10 days ago and is about to start treatment, please help!

Would you please tell me how much is a treatment ?

I’m sorry but I don’t have any more information than what is posted here.

Cuba does have a good biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry but they are not open to international inspections so one should not believe everything they read about Cuba.

If it sounds too good to be true coming out of Cuba, it is.

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porfavor ayuda para una madre peruana .
que tiene cancer