Cuba and US researchers team up to fight lung cancer

Havana: Diplomatic ties between Cuba and the United States may be strained but the two countries are standing shoulder to shoulder to fight a common enemy: cancer.

The first biotechnical collaboration between the countries aims to test the effectiveness of a Cuban treatment for lung cancer and see if it could be used for US patients.

Although still in the test stage, the CIMAvax-EGF treatment has made a lot of noise over the last few months, even before the announcement of this partnership.

Various Internet sites claim it’s a miracle cure, but experts say the truth is more complex than that.

According to Orestes Santos, a researcher at Havana’s molecular immunology centre, rather than a vaccination, the treatment involves the “active immunology” of the so-called EGF, or epidermal growth factor, protein that stimulates cell growth.

“The lung cancer tumor needs EGF to grow and proliferate, and what we’ve done in our centre is develop a product that generates antibodies against this protein,” Santos said.

“It’s an extra weapon in the fight against cancer, which combines with other therapeutic weapons like chemotherapy.”

Interested by their work, the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, in Buffalo, New York, formed a partnership with the Cuban centre during a US business mission to the island nation in 2015.

That year the two Cold War foes restored diplomatic relations after decades of enmity.

“The Cuban-American enterprise aims to finance the development (of treatment) and bring about more complete clinical tests on American soil,” said Kalet Leon Monzon, assistant director at the molecular immunology centre.

The treatment has already been approved in Bosnia, Paraguay, Peru, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. — AFP