HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 26 (acn) The first therapeutic vaccine for advanced lung
cancer, developed by Cuban scientists, will be administered in the coming
weeks, an executive in charge of its distribution in Europe announced on
Thursday.
Erik Dâ’Hondt, scientific director of the Malaysian pharmaceutical group
Bioven, said that “in a matter of days” a group of British patients will
receive the Cimavax-EGF, created by scientists at Havana’s Center for
Molecular Immunology.
He added that similar tests are also planned for Australia, Thailand and
Malaysia.
The vaccine was administered with good results to more than 1,000 patients
in Cuba and it has also been registered in Peru and it is in the process
of registration in other Latin American countries such as Colombia,
Brazil, Paraguay, Ecuador and Argentina.
Zoraida Acosta, a researcher at the Center for Molecular Immunology, said
the vaccine has no severe side effects and increases the patient’s life
expectancy with a good quality of living. It cannot prevent the onset of
the disease but will allow advanced cancer to be controlled by generating
antibodies against the proteins that trigger the uncontrollable processes
of cellular proliferation.
Cuban scientists believe that the product’s same basic principle could be
used to treat other cancers, including prostate, uterus, and breast cancers.