A new cancer vaccine may soon be available to American lung cancer patients thanks to thawing relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

Cuba's Center for Molecular Immunology created Cimavax to treat lung cancer patients. The vaccine targets epidermal growth factor (EGF), a natural hormone in the body that allows cancer cells to grow. By stopping EGF, the vaccine effectively keeps tumors from growing.

The vaccine is simple enough for a primary care doctor to administer.

The vaccine is a form of immunotherapy treatment — using the body's own immune system to fight cancer — along the lines of a melanoma treatment Good News Network reported on last month.

Cimavax is only available in Cuba and Peru now, but the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, has asked the Food and Drug Administration to let them study the drug for safety and side effects — opening the path for it's use in the U.S.

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