The IACML-54 has generated as much hope as doubts.
Colombian researchers led by the philosopher and doctor Hugo Segura made public a few days ago a supposed discovery that would revolutionize the medicine and treatments so far applied against cancer: the CIMT-54 vaccine that without enough documents to support his research has generated as much hope as Doubts.
For almost 20 years Segura and his team, with resources from the Manuela Beltrán University of Bogotá, began the path towards the possible cure of one of the most deadly diseases in the world that has become the greatest fear of society and the challenge Of medicine.
After the US Patent and Trademark Office last June granted a patent certificate to the IACML-54, its creators decided to give the good news through local media without counting that it would generate a shower of questions and criticisms that still don’t stop.
Segura, who at the request of Manuela Beltrán University decided to remain silent and not grant new interviews, told the CM news two weeks ago that the study was debated between aftershocks, errors and new attempts that finally concluded in the detection of the “type of proteins and specific immunological adjuvants “from tumors.
As an autologous biological vaccine , that is, made from the properties of a patient’s tumor, the IACML-54 would have the ability to treat the disease “by blocking the tumor cells so that metastasis does not occur.”
In addition, it could “reactivate the immune system by causing it to attack the malignant cells exclusively”, contrary to what a conventional treatment with chemotherapy or radiotherapy produces.
The path to achieve such a great discovery, that if effective would also give a turn to the pharmaceutical industry, normally begins in a laboratory phase to pass animals and finally humans. In this last phase called clinic, the vaccine is tested in a group of no more than 100 healthy people.
Subsequently, the tests are carried out in a larger group but of sick individuals to determine the dose that shows results and finally possible side effects in a group of at least 3,000 patients are ruled out.
However, the little documentation available to the group of specialists of the Manuela Beltrán University, as well as the short medical and scientific journey of Dr. Segura, raise doubts in various sectors of the Colombian scientific society.
The oncologist of the Santa Fe de Bogotá Foundation Andrés Cardona believes that “there is no previous history of the vaccine or medical publications that support the research”, so he believes that “we must be cautious with the information”.
On the patent granted to the group led by Segura, which does not have doctorates or in-depth studies on the subject, the microbiologist María Latting states that they do not confirm the discovery but simply “show that what is discovered belongs to such a person.”
The medical professor of the Javeriana University Paula Prieto considers for her part as worrying that the process to achieve the vaccine and its application in humans has not been monitored by the Invima (National Institute of Food and Drug Surveillance), as mandated by legislation Colombian
Prieto believes that something worse is that Manuela Beltrán University does not have the informed consents approved by the patients, a necessary procedure for the application of the discovery in the 133 humans who according to Segura have received the dose throughout the investigation.
“Patients were coming to whom medicine had abandoned them, and with a fully established consent, they came to undergo the treatment and we managed, for example, that a person who had a month of diagnosed life, lived not five, not seven, but 10 years more, “said the doctor when he announced the scope of the vaccine .
Although in the world’s leading scientific publications, as well as in search engines for medical information such as PubMed, the vaccine has not yet been reviewed, the testimonies of those who allegedly benefited from the IACML-54 abound on the Internet.
That is the case of Marina Acosta, a 37-year-old woman who says that after starting treatment with the vaccine in 2007, a year after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and metastases in a vertebra, “the results began to be evident” .
“When performing the control bone scintigraphy, it appeared free of metastases, negative for metastases,” Acosta wrote, detailing that ” booster shots ” are necessary to control cancer.
The doctor and oncologist Carlos Castro, a member of the Colombian League against Cancer , believes that “generating expectations and life expectancies that are not real to those who suffer from a disease as delicate as cancer is really worrying.
Treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgeries, bone marrow transplants, immunotherapies, among others, would remain in the past to be confirmed the effectiveness of the vaccine that in addition to curing the deadly disease would seek to prevent it.
However, the authorities will be responsible for delivering an explanation of the announcement that, contrary to receiving applause and recognition, is generating controversy and great doubts in the South American country.