How it began
CIMAvax-EGF was developed by researchers at the Center of Molecular Immunology (CIM) in Havana over more than 25 years. Clinical trials began in Cuba in 1995. A review indexed in PubMed describes it as a therapeutic anticancer vaccine developed entirely in Cuba and licensed there for adults with stage IIIB or IV non-small-cell lung cancer.
How it works
The vaccine does not kill cells directly. It targets epidermal growth factor (EGF), a protein that cancer cells need in order to grow. A carrier protein in the vaccine prompts the immune system to make antibodies against EGF. The antibodies remove EGF from the blood, so it cannot attach to its receptor on the tumor cell, and the cell is starved of a signal it needs to multiply. This differs from drugs that block the receptor itself.
How it spread
Researchers at Roswell Park in Buffalo, New York, and CIM began exchanging research information in 2011. An agreement to develop the vaccine in the United States was made in April 2015, during a New York State trade mission to Cuba. Roswell Park started clinical trials in 2017 and became the only United States institution cleared by the Food and Drug Administration to test it.
What changed first
In phase III trials in advanced lung cancer the vaccine extended survival by four to six months, reduced symptoms such as coughing and breathlessness, and improved quality of life, according to The ASCO Post. It is not a cure. Cuban scientists reported very little toxicity.
Where it stands today
More than 5,000 lung cancer patients have been treated with CIMAvax-EGF. It is an approved treatment in Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Paraguay and Peru. In the United States it is available only to patients accepted into trials at Roswell Park, where researchers have also tested whether it can help prevent lung cancer.
