• 11/20/2006
  • Las Tunas, Cuba
  • Orfilio Pelaez
  • Periodico (www.periodico26.cu)

Results from recent clinical trials made with the humanized monoclonal antibody HR3, obtained by specialists from the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM), show promise in the possibility of using this antibody in the treatment of head and neck tumors.

Dr. Agustin Lage, director of the CIM, broke the good news at a press conference during the opening session of an Immunotherapy Workshop taking place simultaneously with the Biotechnology Havana 2006 convention.

Dr. Lage said that test results received in trials held in Cuba and other countries such as India, China and Germany, showed a significant reduction in the malignant lesion of certain brain tumors (almost all of them non-treatable by surgery ) and of pharyngeal carcinomas.

This humanized monoclonal antibody obtained the Gold Medal awarded by the World Organization of Intellectual Property, and is the first ever registered in Cuba for the treatment of advanced stages of cancer in the head and neck.

The antibody inhibits cancer cells from multiplying by blocking the receptor of the EGF (Epidermal Growth Factor) a protein associated with the proliferation of cancer cells, metastasis and the invasion of healthy tissues. The antibody is administered together with other traditional therapeutic procedures.