Cuban Therapeutic Vaccine Against Cancer To Be Tested In Britain

Britain will perform clinical trials in the coming weeks of a therapeutic vaccine for advanced lung cancer - Cimavax-EGF - created by scientists at Cuba's Center for Molecular Immunology, or CIM, a source in the island's pharmaceutical sector told Efe Friday.

The study was approved by British regulators after the recent authorization of a protocol of multinational, decentralized clinical trials for the vaccine.

Tests are also being planned in such countries as Australia, Thailand and Malaysia.

The Cuban medication was prepared after 15 years of research by CIM scientists, who believe that the medication's same basic principle could be used to treat other cancers.

According to the Cuban experts, the vaccine 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.

The vaccine was administered with good results to more than 1,000 patients in Cuba.

The product has also been registered in Peru and is in the process of registration in other Latin American countries including Colombia, Brazil, Paraguay, Ecuador and Argentina.

Project director Gisela Gonzalez said in January that the vaccine is safe, has no severe side effects and increases the patient's life expectancy with a good quality of living.

Cuban media have said that Cimavax-EGF is the world's first therapeutic vaccine against advanced lung cancer.

According to data from the World Health Organization, cancer is the No. 1 cause of mortality worldwide, and lung cancer is one of the most frequently occurring types.

Some 7.6 million people are estimated to have died of cancer in 2008, a figure that will increase to about 11 million in 2030.