03/26/2020
on NOVA “Cuba’s Cancer Hope”- Innovative Cancer Vaccine Offers New Hope for Patients – But an International Embargo Stands in the Way Wednesday, April 1, 9 pm on WNED PBS.
One in three Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. It kills an estimated 600,000 people a year in the U.S. and is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. New lifesaving immunotherapy drugs can be very effective, but also very costly, and FDA approval can take years. Some Americans are taking matters into their own hands — defying the U.S. embargo to seek treatment in Cuba, where doctors have developed promising cancer vaccines. Watch to learn how their journey led to Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center right here in Buffalo launching a historic, rst-time collaboration between Cuban and American scientists. How did Cuba, a small nation cut off from modern medical technology, become a world player in cancer science? NOVA traces the success of Cuba’s immunotherapy back 60 years to the time of the Cuban Revolution. When Fidel Castro installed himself as authoritarian leader in 1959, medical science was at the heart of his vision. He promised free health care, and immediately invested in creating a modern medical infrastructure for his people. When the U.S. trade embargo left Cuba isolated from medical resources in the early 1960s, Castro was forced to get creative, developing a self-sustaining medical sector to manufacture its own medicine for Cuba’s public health service.
Today, Cuba’s Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM) in Havana is one of 30-plus high-tech biopharma research centers on the island, holding over 2,000 patents for drugs and processes in use around the world. However, the U.S. trade embargo makes these treatments unavailable in the U.S. But now, American patients could be on their way to gaining access to Cuban cancer treatments legally. In 2016, Roswell became the rst American research center to sponsor a clinical trial with a Cuban-made drug. CIMAvax-EGF — a potential breakthrough lung cancer vaccine developed at Cuba’s CIM — is already being used to treat thousands of patients in Cuba and other countries. Dr. Augustin Lage, founding director of CIM, is very aware of the importance of such collaborations. “In science, cooperation is everything,” said Lage. “So if you are isolated, you are dead in science.” NOVA not only examines how Cuba overcame enormous obstacles to develop such advances in immunotherapy treatments, but also explores the fascinating rise of immunotherapy science — from a practice some medical textbooks once labeled akin to “witchcraft,” to an approach that is rapidly becoming the standard care for cancer treatment.
Text from the WNED PBS April guide COVER STORY.
Latin America Solidarity Committee of Western New York. 
