HeberFERON shows results in diffuse brain tumors

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 28 (ACN) The Cuban product HeberFERON, developed by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB by its Spanish acronym), has shown encouraging results in the treatment of patients with diffuse, poor prognosis or progressive brain tumors, said a specialized source in Havana.

In an exclusive interview with the Cuban News Agency, PhD Iraldo Bello, leader of the product, explained that a Phase I trial was carried out to evaluate its clinical safety in 30 patients, based on the evaluation of three doses (7 million, 10.5 million and 14 million units of interferon).

The research demonstrated that the drug is safe and showed effects in prolonging the life of the patients up to 20 months, which, according to the expert, is a very satisfactory result because with the best therapies in the world, the patients live only two years.

We have been evaluating in Cuba the combination of HeberFERON with chemotherapy and radiotherapy and we have the results of preclinical studies, which along with the clinical development of the product will allow us in the future to apply to the Cuban regulatory authority for its sanitary registration for the indication of diffuse, poor prognosis or progressive brain tumors, he added.

Dr. Duniel Abreu Casas, a second-degree specialist in Neurosurgery at the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery of Cuba, added that the product offers hope for those who suffer from brain tumors with poor prognosis, since their management is extremely costly in the world, from surgery to radiotherapies and medications.

As a result of the research, we are all working together to make this drug safe and effective; we hope that in a few years' time the final result will be that we manage to achieve control and survival of the patients for more than two or three years," he remarked.

HeberFERON -a combination of recombinant alpha 2b and gamma interferons in the same bulb- is effective in basal cell carcinoma: the most frequent skin tumor with a high incidence on a global scale, and we hope that the same thing will happen in diffuse gliomas in adults, with a high degree of malignancy, poor prognosis or progressive, Abreu Casas concluded.