Some 500 lung cancer patients at 65 polyclinics in Cuba have begun to receive treatment with the CimaVax-EGF therapeutic vaccine, developed by the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM) on the western outskirts of the country’s capital. Grisel Rodríguez, coordinator of the treatment project, told Tierramérica that the low toxicity of the vaccine made it possible to introduce its use in the country’s primary health care system in 2011. Treatment with the vaccine improves the quality of life of lung cancer sufferers.

Throughout the development cycle of CimaVax-EGF approximately 2,000 patients have been treated with the vaccine in Cuba, she added.

In Cuba, all health care services, no matter how complex, are free of charge for the entire population. The CIM is currently conducting 45 clinical trials with newly developed drugs including eight for the treatment of cancer, Rodríguez reported.