Cuban-developed cancer vaccine tested on 39 cancer patients in Turkey

A Cuban-developed cancer vaccine that is not licensed in any country other than Argentina is now being tested on 39 cancer patients in five different health centers in Turkey.

Although not a cure, the drug named Racotumomab has been shown in previous clinical trials conducted in Argentina and Cuba to extend survival about two to three months on average.

The Turkish Pharmacists' Association is bringing the medicine to the country at a cost of $2,620 per dosage. Blood samples taken from patients in Turkey are sent to a hospital in Istanbul to determine the patients the medicine is effective on. 

Data on the progress of the cancer as well as effects of the treatment regarding some 12 patients have already been presented at the 22nd National Cancer Congress hosted by the Turkish Radiation Oncology Association, the Turkish Pediatric Oncology Group and the Turkish Medical Oncology Association in the Mediterranean province of Antalya in April. 

Prof. Dr. Nil Molinas Mandel, an oncologist at Istanbul's American Hospital, said the medicine was effective on the treatment of a non-small cell lung cancer, consisting of 80-85 percent of all types of lung cancer. Mandel also said the medicine was used for other cancer types in Cuba such as gastric and pancreatic cancers. 

"The body [of the cancer patient] learns to regress, stop the illness or at least learns to recognize what is not of itself [with this medicine]. Patients in Turkey have been ordering these vaccines for about three years now," Mandel said. 

Mandel added that some Turkish patients have been bringing the vaccine themselves by going to Cuba personally, instead of ordering them through the Turkish Pharmacists' Association in a temperature-controlled supply chain...