Skin cancer vaccine discovered - Moderna and Merck successful test against melanoma
Success with a personalized cancer vaccine designed to keep melanoma at bay opens up a new treatment avenue that doctors hope will work against many types of tumors. Unlike chemotherapy, which kills both healthy and cancerous cells, or immunotherapy, which revs up the immune system, personalized cancer vaccines train the immune system to specifically target mutations found only in a person's tumor.
Merck and Moderna said their vaccine helped prevent the disease from returning and spreading in a large trial involving more than 1,000 melanoma patients. They had localized tumors that were surgically removed but had a high risk of recurrence. Moderna expects thousands of melanoma patients could benefit within the first few years of approval.
Beyond melanoma, personalized cancer vaccines are in late-stage development for a host of tumor types. Merck and Moderna have several large trials underway in surgically removed non-small cell lung cancers.
They are also studying the combination in mid-stage trials in patients with bladder and kidney cancer, as well as in early-stage trials of pancreatic and stomach cancer, with multiple trial results expected in the next year or two.
Merck and Moderna's treatment, known as autogenous intismeranan, involves activating the immune system with up to nine doses of Merck's immunotherapy drug Keytruda, infused every six weeks, plus up to nine doses of a personalized RNAi vaccine that instructs the immune system to attack the patient's specific cancer cells.
When used alone after surgery to reduce the risk of melanoma coming back, Keytruda is given every three to six weeks for up to a year. In melanoma patients, treatment with Keytruda can result in fatigue, diarrhea, rash, and inflammation of the joints and muscles, as well as healthy organs in some cases. The companies said they saw no new side effects with the addition of the vaccine.
The trial is ongoing and the companies have not yet released full results. They will continue to follow volunteers to determine whether the drug prolongs overall survival.
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