Column: Roswell Park’s alliance with Cuba gets the ‘wow’ treatment from PBS’ ‘Nova’ – Buffalo News

Wow.

Thats the word Candace Johnson, the president and chief executive officer of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, uses early in Cubas Cancer Hope. It airs as part of the PBS series Nova at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

She added the words, in Cuba, jeez, referring to the small communist countrys work on a vaccine for the treatment for certain forms of cancer.

But the word can also be applied to the positive national publicity Roswell Park is receiving in the program.

"Wow," indeed.

It certainly could use some good publicity after Roswell Park fired a top executive over the weekend for things she wrote on her Facebook page that bashed President Trump's response to the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Nova documentary plays like a promotion for Roswell Parks partnership with Cuba in search of a treatment. Roswell Park is especially highlighted in the second half of the hourlong program.

Several Roswell Park doctors, including Dr. Kelvin Lee, Dr. Kunle Odunsi, Dr. Mary Reid, Dr. Grace K. Dy and Dr. Joseph Tario, appear. The program centers around how Roswell became involved with scientists in a small Communist country where American citizens go to receive treatment illegally because of a United States trade embargo that complicates the relationship between the countries.

Dr. Kelvin Lee (Photo courtesy of Roswell Park)

I think everyone here thought that Cuba was stuck in I Love Lucy days, the 1950s, old cars, there cant possibly be good science going on, Lee says early in the program.

The beautifully filmed hour also may appeal to supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who was criticized for old comments about Fidel Castros regime in Cuba expanding education and health care.

Cubas Cancer Hope acknowledges Castro's dictatorial sins that led to half its doctors leaving the country early in his reign. But it also credits the dictator for emphasizing science and giving Cubans something not available to all Americans free health care.

Lee and other doctors give a basic understanding of immunotherapy, genetic engineering, checkpoints and what Cuban scientists have discovered in the treatment of cancer that has resulted in some Americans going there to extend their lives.

"Cubas Cancer Hope humanizes the story by following some people who have been given the treatment and lived beyond expectations.

The question of how Roswell Park was chosen as a partner is raised, but not as thoroughly as I hoped. Odunsi explained that he was told Roswell Park was approached because it was one of the few institutions where discoveries in Cuba could be taken to the next level.

The relationship began in 2011 when Cuban doctors made a presentation at Roswell Park before a standing room audience.

Scientists, were a little crazy, Johnson explained. We all want to hear something really interesting. It sparked curiosity of how it came to be ... Wow, in Cuba. Jeez.

The bigger question is whether all the challenges of bringing the potential life-extending drug to Buffalo and across the United States will ever be conquered.

If it does, wow will be an understatement.

Dr. Candace Johnson (Photo courtesy of Roswell Park)

In a telephone interview, Johnson made aspects of the development of the partnership between Roswell Park and the Cuba doctors sound even more dramatic than portrayed in the documentary.

She noted that the April 2015 trade mission led by Gov. Andrew Cuomo that resulted in Roswell Park signing an agreement with Cubas Center for Molecular Immunology to set up a clinical trial for a lung cancer vaccine CimaVax was done under unusual circumstances.

At the time that (Cuomo) did that, that was pretty bold because no one had really gone there, she said. I was asked to go with Kelvin Lee and they had to charter a plane that left from JFK (Airport in New York City). The CEO of JetBlue was on the plane. They had to carry their own mechanics because there were no mechanics in Havana, there was no way to pay them. There was no way to pay rent. They refueled and left and refueled at Fort Lauderdale.

It was precedent-setting to say the least, she added. And then for us to come out of that trip with an agreement with the CIM to be able to work with, test and work toward doing a clinical trial was really exciting. When we first came back from Cuba from that trade mission, the world was abuzz because at that time really no one was going to Cuba.

I think for the whole world it was, 'what's going on here? I mean we did interviews from that very first trip from places all around the world. I guess the thing that I'm most proud of is that it wasn't just a flash in the pan where we got in the spotlight at the Havana airport with the governor. But we actually did something and we worked hard to be able to use this vaccine approach in a clinical trial that is ongoing.

Johnson hasnt seen the documentary, but she views it as a really intriguing story that gave Cuban doctors the respect they have sought and deserved.

When we first started talking about Cuba and this has changed the Cuban scientists and this vaccine, the arrogance that you would hear from people, she recalled. Why are they smarter than we are? They are just a third world country. How could they possibly be doing anything that's maybe better than we have? So I think it's a combination of sort of a little guy doing well that also makes this story pretty interesting.

She had a more thorough answer to why the Cuban scientists chose to partner with Roswell instead of cancer centers that are bigger, more famous or have more money.

I think the one thing that really contributed to that is Dr. Lee is a very engaging guy, she said. Youve got to look Cubans in the eye. They have to know you to trust you. And I think part of the reason we were successful is we developed a trust between our two institutions even though the politics between our two countries is very tense and sometimes controversial."

If the vaccine eventually passes the clinical trials, Johnson expects the Food and Drug Administration would approve its use in the U.S. so patients would no longer need to go to Cuba.

I know everything that we do with Cuba can be a challenge because of the relationship between our two countries, Johnson said. Were very hopeful. It seems to me it would be very difficult from the FDA's perspective, if this drug has a role, that it wouldn't be available in this country.

email: apergament@buffnews.com

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Column: Roswell Park's alliance with Cuba gets the 'wow' treatment from PBS' 'Nova' - Buffalo News