According to doctors, the world’s first personalised cancer vaccine for melanoma reduces the risk that patients will die or have the disease return.
According to the 2020 statistics from World Research Fund International, melanoma affects over 150,000 people worldwide each year.
Data presented at the largest cancer conference in the world showed that patients who received the vaccine following a melanoma removal of stage three or four had a 49% reduced risk of dying, or having the disease return after three years. The NHS in UK is one of the organizations that are testing the vaccine.
Oncologist Prof Georgina Lang, the primary investigator of the study, stated that the average risk of recurrence following surgery was 50% for the group of advanced cancer patients.
The Australian of the year for 2024 said that, “although we need to look at five- and 10-year numbers in this group, the majority of the risk of recurrence occurs in those first two years.”
The 157 patients who took part in the phase 2b study had melanomas with a high risk. They were either given the Moderna-Merck developed jab along with the immunotherapy Keytruda, or they received only Keytruda.
Long stated that the Keytruda and vaccine brought down the risk of recurrence to 25 percent. She cautioned that the results are only a “signal”, and a larger study is needed to better evaluate the impact.
Delegates at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Chicago were told that the 2.5-year survival rate of Keytruda in combination with the Keytruda jab was 74.8% compared to 55.6% with Keytruda alone.
Kyle Holen is Moderna’s Head of Development, Therapeutics and Oncology. “We are encouraged by these latest results,” he said. These findings confirm our commitment to developing this innovative treatment.
Iain Foulkes of Cancer Research UK’s executive director for research and innovation said that the results mark another milestone in an “exciting, developing landscape” of cancer vaccine research.
He said that after three years, data showed no increase in cancer relapses among people with advanced melanoma and high-risk melanoma. The findings show the potential of cancer vaccines combined with powerful immunotherapies.
The mRNA-4157 injection (V940) is custom-made for each patient. It tells the body to destroy any cancer cells that remain and to prevent the disease from returning.
During the surgery, a sample of the tumour is taken. This is then sequenced using DNA and artificial intelligence. The anti-cancer injection is then tailored to the tumour of each patient.
A second study presented at ASCO by the University of Vienna found that cancer jabs could improve breast cancer patient survival after surgery.
This study included 400 patients who had early-stage breast cancer. Before surgery, half of the patients received a vaccination to boost their immune system.
Eighty-one percent of those patients who received the vaccine are still alive after seven years and have no breast cancer. This compares to 65% of those receiving standard treatment.
The lead author of the study, Dr Christian Singer, stated: “This is a significant and profound long term survival benefit for an anti-cancer vaccination in breast cancer patients that has been reported to date.”
Prof Charles Swanton of Cancer Research UK, chief clinician, described the results as “extremely impressive”.
Swanton described the situation as “extremely exciting”. “The new approach to vaccines is another piece to the puzzle which will hopefully allow more patients be cured or suffer a disease relapse. It will ultimately contribute to the improvement of survival rates over the next decade and beyond.
is a new NHS “matchmaking scheme” that will save thousands of lives by allowing them to be quickly enrolled in groundbreaking trials for personalised cancer vaccines.
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