Cuba has created a therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer

For many years, promising studies have been conducted on Liberty Island to create a therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer, according to Wired . Because of the 55-year-old trade embargo led by the United States, Cuba has largely lagged behind the rest of the world, but certainly not in medicine.

In the light of a number of factors, including because of such impressive progress in the fight against cancer, the administration of the US president has been trying to normalize relations with Cuba in recent years. Last month, during the visit of Governor Andrew Cuomo to Havana, the Roswell Park Cancer Research Institute signed an agreement with the Cuban Center for Molecular Immunology to supply a lung cancer vaccine and conduct clinical trials in the United States. In fact, American researchers are introducing Cimavax vaccine into the United States market and are already in the process of approving it as a medicine.
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“The chance to test a cancer vaccine is an exciting prospect,” says Candace Johnson, CEO of Roswell Park. "Information about the vaccine has excited us very much, because all studies show that it has low toxicity and is relatively cheap to produce and store." The center will prepare all necessary documentation on vaccine toxicity and previous test results. According to Johnson, they hope to get approval for Cimavax tests over the next six to eight months, and to begin clinical trials within a year.

So how did Cuba, the country of rum and cigars, achieve similar successes in immune oncology? Many do not know that Liberty Island is one of the world leaders in biotechnology and medical research. A special contrast arises when you find out that the average salary in Cuba is $ 20 a month. Compared to the United States, Cuba spends significantly less money on health care, and the average life expectancy in these countries is, in fact, equal. “They had to do more with less,” says Johnson, “therefore, Cuba’s researchers had to be even more innovative than scientists in the Western world. For 40 years they have been actively developing their own school of immunology. ”

Despite decades of economic and technological blockade, Fidel and Raul Castro made biotechnology and medical research, namely preventive medicine, a priority activity at the state level. After an outbreak of dengue fever in 1981, which hit nearly 350,000 Cubans, the Cuban government launched active biological and medical research. Various institutions began to engage in research activities on a variety of issues. The first significant and, in part, unexpected for the rest, the success of Cubans was the creation of synthetic interferon - a protein that plays an important role in the human immune response. After that, Cuban scientists made several more breakthroughs in vaccination, for example, created their own effective vaccines against meningitis B, hepatitis B, and synthesized monoclonal antibodies used in kidney transplants.

Lung cancer is the fourth leading cause of death in Cuba, which is not surprising given the widespread tobacco smoking culture on the island. Researchers at the Center for Molecular Immunology have been working on the Cimavax vaccine for 25 years, until the Ministry of Health of Cuba made it publicly available to citizens in 2011. Each vaccine costs the government about $ 1. The population is vaccinated for free.

The second stage of the trial, conducted since 2008, showed that lung cancer patients who received the vaccine lived, on average, from four to six months longer. This prompted Japan and some European countries to also begin clinical trials of Cimavax.

In fairness it should be noted that with the help of Cimavax, most likely, it is impossible to cure cancer, at least at the current stage of development of the drug. The vaccine does not attack the tumor directly, but begins to act only after the protein produced by the tumor begins to circulate in the blood. Neutralization of this protein allows the body's native antibodies to fight the hormone that stimulates the growth of bronchial epithelial tissue, which forms malignant tumors, more commonly known as lung cancer. That is, it is necessary to clearly understand that a vaccine is not a medicine, although many people think otherwise. A vaccine is a tool to stimulate a person’s immune system to combat certain diseases. Cimavax, at its current stage, is a drug that slows the growth and appearance of metastases, allowing it to stop an actively developing cancer and translate it into a controlled, chronic stage.

All this gives lung cancer patients from the USA and Europe another treatment option. Roswell Park researchers say they plan to explore the potential of a vaccine as a prophylactic agent, that is, to shift the emphasis towards traditional vaccination in order to prevent the disease. In addition, the epidermal factor plays an important role in the development of many other types of cancer, such as prostate, colon, breast and pancreatic cancers. “All of these cancers are potential targets for a new vaccine,” says Kelvin Lee, the park's immunologist. The main reason why Cubans were unable to test the possibility of using Cimavax to combat all these types of cancer is not their short-sightedness, but a lack of funding.

Cimavax is not the only drug with similar potential developed by Cuban scientists. Thomas Rotstein, a biologist at the Feinstein Medical Research Institute, for six years worked with the Center for Molecular Immunology on another vaccine for the treatment of lung cancer called Racotumumab, which has a completely different mechanism of action. (Attacks a specific lipid found in the cell membranes of tumors). "Researchers around the world are trying to find a cure for cancer," says Rothstein. "Cubans think differently, with talent, use original approaches to solving problems."

President Obama has used all his influence in recent years to weaken the embargo against Cuba on medical and research equipment. But in order for Cuban researchers to become full-length and start working together with their foreign colleagues, the blockade will need to be lifted. In the meantime, limited by politics, Cuban researchers cannot share innovations with their colleagues around the world. Perhaps, if the blockade is lifted, Cuban scientists will be able to share the experience they have accumulated for decades with their colleagues around the world.

PS On the topic of Cuban medicine, we can recommend to watch an excerpt from the documentary film "Healthcare". The filmmaker in this passage communicates with Ernesto Che Guevara’s daughter, Aleida Guevara , who followed in her father’s footsteps and became a pediatrician in Cuba.


Part 1.


Part 2.