The world is moving closer to effective vaccines for lung cancer and malaria with the Cuba’s groundbreaking lung cancer vaccine being approved for clinical trials in the United States (U.S.).
Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, U.S., has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) to begin clinical trials after a trade trip to Havana in 2015 with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
The vaccine has been tested in a number of countries around the world, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Cuba.
According to the report published in DailyMailUK Online, all of those countries have approved the vaccine and more than 4,000 lung cancer patients have received the vaccine in trials. The tests showed a significantly higher rate of survival, better quality of life for patients and overall tumour stabilisation.
Governor Cuomo joined Roswell Park officials to announce the trial – the first of its kind.
The treatment, called CIMAvax-EGF, is a form of immunotherapy – training the body’s immune system to attack and destroy cancer, which was developed by Havana’s Center of Molecular Immunology.
The trial, expected to begin next month, will involve 60 to 90 adult patients who have Stage IIIB or Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer. They must have a life expectancy of at least six months, and must have already tried first-line systemic chemotherapy.
Also, a new research has revealed that Britain and France suffer the highest number of malaria cases imported from other countries.
The study published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases found that malaria cases originating from West Africa accounted for 56 per cent of all those detected in non-endemic countries.
The figures suggest that an average of almost 1,900 people with malaria moved to the United Kingdom (U.K.) each year over the last decade.
While France had an average of 2,169 imported infections per year, the U.S. followed with the third highest rates at 1,511, with Italy, 637, and Germany, 401.
Despite the West Africa to France and the U.K. being the strongest imported malaria link, other high traffic routes existed. India to the U.S. recorded an average of 149 cases a year, while visitors from Pakistan were responsible for 69 cases each year in the U.K.
According to The Lancet Infectious Diseases study, the world’s first vaccine offering long-term protection against malaria could be available in just two years after successful trials.
The revolutionary new inoculation was found to protect adults from the infection – the world’s biggest killer after tuberculosis (TB) – for more than a year in a study earlier this year.
More than 40 per cent of the global population lives in areas where there is a risk of contracting the disease.
Last year, 214 million people were infected with malaria and 438,000 died, according to World Health Organisation figures.
By Chukwuma Muanya, Assistant Editor of The Guardian Newspaper
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