Unbounded innovation
Roswell Park’s Cuban collaboration
Through an historic partnership with Cuba’s Centro de Inmunología Molecular, or CIM, Roswell Park is helping to develop several innovative and potentially life-saving cancer therapies. The first of these new approaches to be available to U.S. patients is CIMAvax-EGF,® an immunotherapy for lung cancer. We are the only facility in the country that offers this groundbreaking treatment.
New clinical trials are set to open soon. Please check back for eligibility information.
Additional clinical trials
NCI-supported clinical trials are offered at locations across the United States and Canada for both common and rare cancers. If you aren’t eligible for the CIMAvax clinical trial, there may be a clinical trial better suited to your type of cancer.
Frequently asked questions
CIMAvax-EGF is a lung cancer treatment that was developed in Cuba. It is a type of immunotherapy that harnesses the body’s immune system to fight lung cancer. In 2017, Roswell Park initiated a clinical trials involving CIMAvax. Our first trials have closed but new trials involving CIMAvax are set to open soon. Please check back for eligibility information.
Developed by researchers at the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM) in Havana, Cuba, CIMAvax-EGF blocks a type of protein — epidermal growth factor (EGF) — that cancer cells need to grow. It does not kill cells directly, cancerous cells or otherwise, but “starves” them by preventing EGF from attaching to its proper receptor (EGFR) on the cell. This connection is required for the cell to grow and proliferate. Without it, the cancer cell does not multiply, and dies. CIMAvax blocks EGF by manipulating the patient’s immune response.
A “carrier protein” in CIMAvax triggers the immune system to produce antibodies against the EGF protein to neutralize it. This depletes circulating EGF from the blood, depriving the cancer cells of this important key to growth and survival.
More than 5,000 lung cancer patients have been treated with this unique immunotherapy, and several international studies have indicated prolonged tumor stabilization and improved overall survival and quality of life for patients receiving CIMAvax. CIMAvax is an approved treatment for lung cancer in Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Paraguay and Peru.
CIMAvax is currently available in the U.S. only to eligible patients accepted into Roswell Park’s clinical trial, which requires being in Buffalo, NY, for an extended period of time. Roswell Park is currently the only U.S. institution with clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct clinical trials with this immunotherapy. There is work being done to bring this therapy to a larger population through other institutes. Our first trials have now closed, but new trials of CIMIvax are set to open soon.
In order to bring CIMAvax to patients as quickly as possible, the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation is proud to commit $4 million in donor dollars to cover the cost of the initial clinical trials. These funds are raised through individual donations to Roswell Park and community fundraising events, including the foundation’s Ride For Roswell and Goin’ Bald For Bucks program. Learn how you can join the Alliance Foundation in supporting this effort.
Help us bring the vaccine to lung cancer patients as quickly as possible.