Cimavax Potential
One review of Cimavax showed that patients who got the drug lived for up to six months longer than those who did not. While this might not seem to offer much hope, six months allows for other treatments to take effect and for the body to fight the illness. These studies were in the illness known to doctors as non-small-cell lung cancer, which comprises nearly nine tenths of the cases seen every year. Because only a small percentage of patients live more than five years after the diagnosis, the potential for Cimavax is obvious.
As many immunologists point out, the goal for Cimavax and other novel treatments may be to turn the illness from a "death sentence to a manageable condition." If a treatment stops tumors from growing, it could provide years to patients who are waiting for a real cure, and it could also create more time to attack the dormant tumors with radiation and chemotherapy.
Developed By Cuban Doctors
The Cimavax drug was developed in Cuba, and many articles are quick to point out the advancements in Cuban medical care or the ratio of doctors to patients, or the life expectancy in a country where they make asbestos brakes by hand for their 1950s automobiles. The fact of the matter is, the sometimes you just have to divorce politics from stories about medical care and see if the treatment works. There is talk of a scorpion venom treatment, but this doesn't mean that people should go out of their way to get bit by scorpions, since the treatment may be more fatal than the disease.
Be Optimistic, but Not Too Hopeful
Finally, the standard cautions about any treatment should be in place, because people who have lung cancer (and their loved ones) often grasp at straws or hope for fast miracles. A clinical trial will have to provide placebos for patients, which means some people will essentially die because of bad luck. The drug needs to be tested on a large sample of patients in order to prove it really works and the research was not flawed. There are also many types and stages of disease, and sometimes there is just not going to be a timely cure. This is a very sad situation, but we also have to be thankful of the advances that have provided us all with the time we can get.