Maybe this is the drug that we’ve all been waiting for. No, this is not some phantasmal, illustrious, high-inducing pill. This one is said to be able to effectively combat lung cancer, one of the most malignant forms of the tumor, at a high level, and to ultimately have it be treated as a chronic disease like diabetes. Designed by researchers and developers at the Cuban Center of Molecular Immunology, the Cimavac EGF lung cancer vaccine was not introduced with the ability to prevent or comprehensively cure lung cancer, but rather, to greatly aid in containing abnormal cell growth.
Part of the deal: vaccine will arrive in New York
Since the 1980s, former Cuban President Fidel Castro and his government have placed quite an immense emphasis on regulating health services, and on developing medical and disease prevention research. Cuban citizens live under a public, national healthcare system, and see one of the highest life expectancies in its immediate geographic region, with the average person living to 78.05 years old. It is really no surprise, then, that medical advances in fields as specialized as cancer research have broken new ground.
With this new lung cancer vaccine, Cuba is evidently ahead of the medical curve, and well ahead of most developed capitalistic nations. Now, with the 55-year U.S. embargo against Cuba lifted, the two countries are slowly beginning to reintroduce aspects of normalized informational exchange and partnership. In April, a deal was signed after Governor Andrew Cuomo visited the capital, Havana. Starting this week, it will allow for the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York to import the lung cancer vaccine and start conducting its own clinical trials and tests.
In exchange, Infor, a U.S. company that specializes in enterprise software development, will supply new, state of the art healthcare software to a university in Havana.
How does CimaVax EGF work as a lung cancer vaccine?
Simply put, the vaccine focuses on combatting a protein called epidermal growth factor (EGF). “Cancer cells” derive when too much EGF is produced and propels uncontrolled cell creation and division. The vaccine works directly with the body’s immune response system, bolstering the growth of antibodies that bind to EGF, preventing EGF from latching to the receptors on cancer cells and dividing them.
In the end, the vaccine still has to be approved by the FDA, but with its reported low-toxicity levels, production costs and number of side effects, impending widespread usage of the lung cancer vaccine in the U.S. is not too far a reach.
