Cuba’s announcement that its scientists have developed a vaccine to improve the lives of lung cancer patients is reason for optimism. It should, however, be cautious optimism since previous claims have been made before by several scientists in dealing with this disease which were later proven to be unfounded.
In 1991, I headed a UN mission to Cuba of Latin American physicians. We were asked to evaluate Cuba’s production of interferon, an anti viral substance, and its applications. We were gladly surprised at the excellent technical level of Cuban scientists and of the progress they had made on producing interferon.
During a visit that Fidel Castro paid to our group, he showed considerable enthusiasm on Cuba advances on public health projects, so it didn’t surprise me the reported advances Cubans have made on a lung cancer vaccine. Since the late 1980, following visits by doctors from the MD Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas, to Havana, the Cuban government had chosen biotechnology as a priority area for development.
Lung cancer is the most common cause of death due to cancer in both women and men throughout the world. It is estimated that lung cancer causes the death of over one million people a year worldwide. According to statistics from the U.S. National Cancer Institute, approximately one of every 14 men and women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer of the lung at some point in their lives.
Until now, treatment of lung cancer involved surgical removal of the cancer, chemotherapy or radiation therapy, as well as a combination of these three procedures. The decision about which treatment to choose depends on the location and extent of the tumor as well as the overall health status of the patient.
Cuba’s biotechnology industry plans to launch the vaccine developed by the Cuban scientists in the international market in the near future. Dr. Gisela Gonzalez, head of the team that researched and developed the vaccine cautions that it is not a miracle drug, although it provides relief in treating terminally ill patients, with fewer side effects than conventional treatments.
The Cuban vaccine against lung cancer, CimaVax-EGF, is composed of a protein, the Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF), linked to another protein that stimulates the patient’s immune system to develop the desired immune response against the EGF. Normally, when the EGF binds to its receptor on the cell membrane it triggers the cell proliferation mechanism, which is increased in the case of tumors.
Following the administration of the vaccine the patients produce antibodies that recognize and specifically bind to the EGF, stopping its binding to a receptor and the beginning of cell proliferation. The consequence is a decrease in tumor growth, the extent varying according to the patient’s individual response.
According to Dr. Gonzalez, this is the first vaccine against cancer to be registered anywhere in the world. CimaVax-EGF has already been patented in Cuba, Peru, Canada, Japan, South Africa and the United States, and there are plans to patent it in other countries. In addition, the vaccine has undergone several clinical trials in Cuba, Canada and the United Kingdom and plans are underway to try it also in China and in the U.S.
Although this vaccine offers considerable promise, one should be cautious in analyzing its potential to treat lung cancer. Several products have been tried in the past that initially looked very promising and later showed no benefit. However, if larger trials confirm the initial findings, an important milestone against lung cancer would have been achieved.
Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant.
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