From the Washington Post
Breakthrough vaccine for the deadliest skin cancer cut risk by almost half
The vaccine used against melanoma is based on mRNA technology that helped end the coronavirus pandemic.
A groundbreaking vaccine reduced the risk of death or recurrence of melanoma by almost half, an encouraging signal for a treatment seeking federal approval that has boosted the fortunes of drugmakers Moderna and Merck and could usher in a new wave of cancer treatments.
The drug, intismeran autogene, which uses messenger RNA (mRNA) to deliver a vaccine tailored to the genetic profile of a patient’s cancer tumor, reduced the risk of recurrence or death from melanoma by 42 percent compared to a standard treatment in a Phase 3 clinical trial, Moderna and Merck announced Thursday.
“It sounds incredibly positive,” Karen Knudsen, CEO of the Parker Institute, a nonprofit for cancer therapeutic research and development, said of the results. “This looks like yet more evidence of a well-conducted, meaningful study.”
Intismeran also reduced the risk of melanoma spreading to other parts of the body or death from melanoma by 38 percent, according to the drugmakers.