Even after successful cancer treatment, many patients continue to live with one persistent concern: the possibility that the disease could return.
That is why researchers around the world are searching for new ways to help the body's immune system keep cancer under control long after surgery.
According to newly released trial results from Merck and Moderna, reported by LADbible, a personalised cancer vaccine has now reached an important milestone.
A tailored approach
Rather than using the same treatment for every patient, the experimental vaccine is designed using the unique genetic mutations found in an individual's tumour.
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The aim is to train the immune system to recognise and eliminate any remaining cancer cells that may still be present after surgery.
The Phase 3 clinical trial involved 1,137 patients with high-risk or advanced melanoma whose tumours had already been removed.
Researchers compared the current standard treatment, Keytruda, with a combination of Keytruda and the personalised mRNA vaccine.
Encouraging results
Patients who received the combination therapy achieved better outcomes than those treated with Keytruda alone. The findings also reinforce earlier research suggesting that the personalised vaccine could lower the risk of the cancer returning after treatment.
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Melanoma is the most aggressive form of skin cancer and accounts for the majority of skin cancer-related deaths worldwide.
For that reason, it has become the first cancer type in which this personalised vaccine technology has reached such an advanced stage of clinical testing. Researchers are also investigating its potential in lung, bladder and kidney cancers.
What happens next?
Although the results are encouraging, the vaccine has not yet been approved for routine clinical use.
The Phase 3 data will now be reviewed by the international medical community before health authorities decide whether the treatment should receive regulatory approval.
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If approved, it could become the first personalised mRNA cancer vaccine available to patients, marking an important advance not only for melanoma treatment but also for the wider field of precision medicine, where therapies are increasingly tailored to each patient's individual disease.
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This article is made and published by Mie Hermansen, who may have used AI in the preparation.