Cuba has attracted worldwide medical attention for developing and manufacturing a breakthrough lung cancer vaccine, and that treatment will reach the United States very soon.
With improved relations between the two countries, Cuba has allowed American scientists to study and explore the Caribbean communist states’ medical achievements, particularly the lung cancer vaccine Cimavax.
Lung cancer is the fourth leading cause of death in Cuba, and Cimavax was developed by the island’s Centre for Molecular Immunology to help treat the often fatal disease.
The treatment works by stimulating the immune system to attack the tumour, making the immune system more efficient in fighting the cancer.
The vaccine creates a protein that causes the immune system to attack the epidermal growth factor (EGF) hormone, which helps tumours grow. This “starves” the tumour and prevents it from growing.
“The Cimavax vaccine induces [an] immune response,” Dr Kelvin Lee, of the Department of Immunology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, told ABC News. “The tumour is being starved.”
Source-Caribbean360
