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• 04 / 17 / 2009

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A modern ward for clinical trials on cancer patients was recently opened in the 3rd Congress Hospital of this western province of Cuba.

Experts said the effectiveness of treatments applied in the hospital has been already proved, with an increase in the quality of life and survival rates of more than 32 months in many cases.

Last year, 2008, around 2,300 cases of cancer were diagnosed in Pinar del Rio, lung and prostate tumors in men and lung and breast cancers in women being the most prevalent.

So far this year, the hospital exclusively dedicated to cancer patients, has invested nearly one million pesos on treatment services. These are provided at no charge to the patients, though the annual cost could be more than 20,000 pesos per person for only one type of trial.

This scientific institution is expected to improve its services with the opening soon of a modern laboratory for immunological and cell tests.

Since 1997, teams of experts in Pinar del Rio have been carrying out clinical trials resulting on 17 types of vaccines that are used on cancer patients, all of them produced by the Havana-based Molecular Immunology Center. Of these 14 vaccines are in production, while another 7 are in the final stage.

(Juventud Rebelde)