Another European Country Authorizes Lung Cancer Vaccine

According to a post on X, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus recently joined Bosnia and Herzegovina by authorizing a lung cancer vaccine.

On July 12, 2024, the Prensa Latina news agency reported that the CimaVax-EGF vaccine was the first patented and registered therapeutic vaccine against non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC).

CimaVax-EGF is a recombinant human EGF-rP64K/montanide ISA 51 vaccine that completed a phase 4 clinical trial for NSCLC in 2017 and is approved as a "maintenance treatment for patients with stage IIIB/IV NSCLC.

Developed by Cuba's Center of Molecular Immunology in 2011, the CimaVax-EGF vaccine has been deployed in Cuba and the South American countries of Colombia, Peru, and Paraguay.

This vaccine is not U.S. FDA-approved nor available to U.S. citizens.

However, a Phase 1/2 clinical trial sponsored by Roswell Park Cancer Institute is ongoing. This study says CIMAvax, combined with nivolumab or pembrolizumab, may better treat patients with NSCLC or squamous head and neck cancer.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute says each type of non-small cell lung cancer has different kinds of cancer cells. The cancer cells of each type grow and spread in various ways. The types of non-small cell lung cancer are named for the kinds of cells found in the cancer and how the cells look under a microscope.