SYDNEY — A personalised mRNA cancer vaccine cut the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 42% in an Australian-led phase 3 trial, researchers said, in results described as “transformational,” ABC News reported.
The trial of 1,137 patients whose melanoma had been surgically removed, run at 157 sites worldwide, compared the immunotherapy pembrolizumab alone with pembrolizumab plus intismeran, an investigational mRNA-based neoantigen therapy jointly developed by MSD (Merck & Co.) and Moderna.
“We did not expect it to be that high … this is phenomenal,” said principal investigator Georgina Long, medical director of Melanoma Institute Australia. The vaccine is built from a biopsy of each patient’s tumour, encoding its top 34 unique differences so the immune system can target them — “like a wanted poster,” she said.
Long is due to present the findings at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress this weekend, and the results are to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Australia has the world’s highest melanoma incidence.
Other experts urged caution: the Centenary Institute’s Jessamy Tiffen said a significant portion of patients do not respond, and the treatment is not preventative. Melanoma Institute Australia said regulatory review could take several years and the therapy is not yet available.
Sources: ABC News (Australia)
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