Cuba claims to have first vaccine against lung cancer

[Magda Hassan]

Cuba claims to have first vaccine against lung cancer

January 12, 2011, 12:54pm
HAVANA, Cuba (PNA/Xinhua) Cuba announced its registration of the first therapeutic vaccine for lung cancer, named CIMAVAX-EGF, in the world here on Monday.
Gisela Gonzalez, project head at the Molecular Immunology Center in Havana, said over 1,000 patients on the island have received treatment successfully with the vaccine.
She explained that CIMAVAX-EGF provides patients with the ability to turn the advanced cancer into a "manageable chronic disease." "CIMAVAX-EGF is the result of over 15 years of research, which does not cause severe side effects," she said.
"It's based on a protein that we all have: the epidermal growth factor, related to the processes of cell proliferation, which makes the cancer out of control," she said
Gonzalez said it was necessary to create "a composition able to generate antibodies against this protein."
This vaccine is given when the patient finishes the treatment with radiotherapy or chemotherapy, and it is considered a "terminal without alternative therapy" because it helps "to control the growth of the tumor without associated toxicity," she pointed out.
"CIMAVAX-EGF can also be used as a chronic treatment, which increases the expectations and quality of life for patients," Gonzalez added.
She concluded that the vaccine is currently being assessed as a therapy against prostate, uterus and breast tumors.

http://mb.com.ph/articles/298027/cuba-cl...ung-cancer

[David Guyatt]

If this turns out to be the breakthrough we all hope it is, it suggests something a number of us cynics have suspected for awhile, namely that big pharma companies can only maximize profits by exciting the continuation of misery.

Outright cures negatively impact balance sheets.

[Charles Drago]

Time will tell.

Meanwhile, expect a flurry of professional skepticism in which the Cubans' work will be described as everything from a faith healing scam to fatally flawed pseudo-science. And God knows what will transpire out of public view: bribery and sabotage, for starters.

David is exactly right. We must not underestimate the threat posed by this or any other cancer cure to the immediate and long-term economic interests of what in the agregate is the multi-trillion dollar health care industry -- which includes big pharma.

Legalization of a cancer cure will happen in the West right after the legalization of marijuana, cocaine, and other recreational drugs.