CUBA, June 25, 2008.The first vaccine for the treatment of advanced lung cancer has been registered in Cuba, reported the Cuban News Agency (CNA). Called CimaVax EGF, the drug increases the length and quality of patients’ lives, said Dr. Gisela Gonzalez who heads the project at the Center of Molecular Immunology (CIM) in Havana. Clinical testing began in Cuba in 1995 involving more than 400 patients with advanced lung cancer who had previously received the conventional chemotherapy or radiotherapy, said Gonzalez. Among the advantages of the drug is a lessening or disappearance of the lack of air suffered by patients, improved appetite and weight gain, and better pain management, allowing sufferers to lead fairly normal lives. Gonzalez said the vaccine has no serious side effects and consists of two proteins: one that stimulates epidermal growth and P-64 K from the membrane, both obtained using the recombination approach at the Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. Gonzalez said that five first phase clinical tests have been carried out and two second phase tests including one in Cuba and another in Canada and England. The clinical benefits to the patents were notable during phase-two testing, after which the CIM filed a request to register the vaccine. The third clinical test is currently taking place at 11 Cuban hospitals involving 579 patients and in August of this year, phase two testing of the drug will take place in Peru and later in China. Dr. Tania Crombet, director of clinical research at the CIM, noted that Cuban researchers are studying the use of CimaVax EGF for other epidermal tumors and has proved helpful in lung, head, neck, brain neoplasia; and in gastric, breast, prostate, rectum, uterine, bladder, ovary and pancreas cancer. Studies on the vaccine began in Cuba in 1992 and included pre-clinical testing on laboratory animals. The first clinical testing took place in 1995.(Cubaminrex- Granma)
|