NOVA

One in three Americans will be diagnosed with cancer

in their lifetime.

I... I have cancer?

Like getting hit by a truck.

The PET scan showed that I had

eight metastasizes in the chest.

I become anxious

because their options

become more and more limited.

Some take matters into their own hands.

You know, I'm not trying to break the law.

But I'm also not gonna die.

Even if it's illegal to get treatment

where they're going...

Cuba.

Wow...

In Cuba, jeez.

What could come out of Cuba

that we don't already know?

How did a small nation

cut off from modern medical technology

become a world player in cancer science?

Cuba was forced to think outside the box.

Castro had a vision.

If there's a 2% chance the science is right,

we need to be there.

And there's nothing in the United States.

Can scientists whose countries are political adversaries

now work together to fight cancer?

If you are isolated, you are dead in science.

Cooperation is everything.

Mosquito. Yeah.

We added the Cuban vaccine,

and his cancer gets smaller,

and disappears.

"Cuba's Cancer Hope."

Don't cry.

Right now, on "NOVA."

Major funding for "NOVA" is provided by the following:

Life isn't meant to be fair.

It's meant to be lived.

George Keays has always loved the outdoors.

He's 67 years old.

I was very active...

Runner, swimmer,

loved mountain sports, skiing, snowboarding,

and that kind of thing.

Today, he's preparing for an unusual trip.

It's a matter of life or death.

George has stage IV lung cancer.

So this was really

kind of a shock.

Something like this put a crimp in your style.

This isn't George's first encounter

with the deadly disease.

My wife was diagnosed years ago

and my daughter was, uh, ten and my other daughter was 20,

and then she passed away when they were 14 and 24.

It was tragic; they were, you know,

very, very close to their mom.

One in three Americans will have cancer in their lifetime.

It's one of the leading causes of death worldwide.

When I first received the diagnosis

of stage IV pancreatic cancer,

I was like, "Huh?"

"I... I have cancer?

"Like, other people have cancer,

I don't have cancer... What are you talking about?"

It was, uh, definitely like getting hit by a truck...

Unexpected, for sure.

I said, "Did you just drop the bombshell on me"

that I think you did?"

And I think that's when it finally clicked.

And he said yes.

I'm about to be 35 in two weeks.

It's been two years that I'm living with

metastatic breast cancer at stage IV.

There are more than 100 different types of cancer.

In the U.S., they kill anestimated 600,000 people a year.

The havoc cancer wreaks on patients and families

is devastating.

My mom passed because of breast cancer,

and my dad passed because of lung cancer.

So for me...

cancer was death.

There's a period between Christmas and New Year's

one time where I didn't get out of bed

for that entire... entire period, you know?

My one daughter came in and said, "Hey, Dad?"

You ever...

"Are you ever going to come play with me again?"

You go from being very healthy,

suddenly, "Well, you have six months to live."

It hit my daughters very, very hard.

My oldest daughter said, um...

"I just love you so much."

When George was diagnosed, he discovered patients like him,

where lung cancer metastasizes throughout the body,

often don't live much longer than a year.

That was four years ago.

George is convinced what's helping him stay alive

is a new treatment that goes beyond the radiation

- and chemo he's received. - And chemo he's received.

It's actually a lung cancer vaccine.

It's one of a new wave of treatments

that are transforming some cancers from a death sentence

into a chronic condition likediabetes or high blood pressure.

We're really in a scientific revolution,

particularly when it comes to cancer research.

Because there are a number of

patients with deadly cancers,

we can turn them into chronic diseases

where they're living years.

But the cancer vaccine George is receiving

is not available in the U.S.

In fact, it's against the law for him to go

where he's been goingfor this cutting-edge treatment.

You know, I'm not trying to break the law.

I'm not, but I'm also not gonna die.

To fill his prescription, George has to fly 2,000 miles...

to Cuba.

But why is George risking a trip to Cuba,

when some of the most advanced cancer medicine in the world

is back in the U.S.?

What could a small communist nation

embargoed by the U.S. for over 50 years

bring to the fight against cancer?

Cuba's advances in cancer treatment are largely unknown

to most Americans.

I think everybody here

thought that Cuba was stuck in "I Love Lucy" days...

You know, the 1950s, old cars,

can't possibly be any good science going on.

I mean certainly I did not know about what was going on.

Kind of, you know, what could come out of Cuba

that we don't already know?

Cuba is a small country with big contradictions.

Even though the island is impoverished,

it continues to provide freehealthcare to all its citizens.

One of them is Marta Reymo.

She shares her small apartment in Havana

- with her family, including her grandson. - With her family, including her grandson.

Yes, yes, I smoked.

But, like a year before I got the disease, I quit smoking.

Why?

Because I had a sister who had the same thing I have today.

And when she had cancer and the doctor talked about

smoking and such,

I quit too, but, well, the damage was already done.

The popularity of Cuba's famous cigars and cigarettes

contributes to lung cancerbeing the deadliest cancer here,

as it is in the U.S.

Some time in 2009, Marta just wasn't feeling like herself.

I went in for my X-ray and an ultrasound

and I had a CT scan.

After all the tests,

they told me that I had a growth in my right lung.

Like George Keays, she was diagnosed with

inoperable stage IV lung cancer.

Saying that disease, I thought the worst.

I thought I was going to die.

Not only did Marta lose her sister to lung cancer,

but Marta's daughter...

Who is a nurse... Lost her husband as well.

My husband died six months before this,

from the same disease, and now I have to face the situation

again with my mother.

It was really hard for me, very difficult.

Marta's lung cancer began the way all cancers do.

Cancer is

our own body going awry,

starting with a single cellin our body that stops listening

to the signals to stop growing,

or stop behaving in a certain way.

And when that cell stops listening to those signals,

it starts growing out of control,

and it turns into cancer.

The bloodstream becomes cancer's highway to reach other organs.

And so then she says, um...

"You have it in multiple areas of your body,

"it's already spread.

"It's in your ovary, it's in your liver,

"it's in your pancreas,

and you got a couple areas in your lungs."

One day when I was working,

I heard something, like... breaking,

and they took me to the emergency room,

took the pictures, and it shows a fracture in my spine.

The cancer made that.

Historically in the fight against cancer,

treatment options have been surgery, radiation,

and chemotherapy.

Marta's found another option.

For ten years she's been taking a cancer vaccine

called CIMAvax-EGF.

- Cuban clinical trials show that it extends life - Cuban clinical trials show that it extends life

By three to five months on average.

And about 15% of patients, including Marta,

have survived five years or more.

CIMAvax is one of a class of new drugs