For those of us who believed that we are alone in the search for a prostate cancer vaccine for advanced prostate cancer, the good news is that we are not. The Vladimir Ilich Lenin hospital, located in Cuba, has announced that they will shortly begin the second phase of the clinical trial of a vaccine to treat men with advanced prostate cancer. The researchers in Cuba have already concluded one successful trial of the vaccine. They claim that this prior trial was conducted in accordance with international clinical practice.

Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center (CIBGB), which is located in Cuba, developed the vaccine. The trial has received approval from the State Center for Quality Control of Drugs in Cuba in 2008, their FDA.

This second phase of the trial will involve 1,500 men all who have been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. The trial site will be in the Santiago de Cuba province and the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital in Havana Cuba.

In Cuba, more than 70% of men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer are diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer! Prostate cancer is the second largest killer in men in Cuba! Let these numbers serve as a warning to all those countries who fail to encourage and support early screening for prostate cancer.

If this trial proves successful, we can only hope that the scientists will be able to release all the data and other countries will choose to evaluate their findings. Then we have to hope that other governments will allow their citizens to gain access to the treatment. Politics need to be put aside when it comes to saving lives.

Joel T Nowak MA, MSW