A skin cancer vaccine has undergone a phase II clinical trial, which has revealed promising results.
Skin Cancer Treatment
The novel vaccine was developed by Moderna and is designed to operate with a different immunotherapy treatment known as KEYTRUDA, which also aids the body in its battle against cancer.
KEYTRUDA is under the ownership of Merck. Its ongoing clinical trial comes as a collaboration of both pharmaceutical firms in order to treat patients with high melanoma risk cut out of their skin.
In comparison to KEYTRUDA working on its own, initial analysis reveals that both treatments, when combined together, reduce recurrence or death risk in the succeeding three years by a whopping 49%. On top of this, fatality or spread risk of cancer went down by 62% compared to KEYTRUDA working alone.
This treatment serves as the first therapy to exhibit the significant benefit of KEYTRUDA alone.
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Moderna Vaccine
The technology of Moderna is what underpins the COVID-19 vaccine of the company. Messenger RNA (mRNA) is capable of easily entering cells and offering instructions to particular proteins that help combat pathogens.
Moderna scientists explain that they are making use of such a concept to harness the immune system of the body to distinguish and eradicate cancer cells the same way the immune system distinguishes and aims at infections.
The mRNA vaccine, called mRNA-4157 or V940, is specifically designed for stage III and IV melanoma. It has a synthetic mRNA code that contains the key for the production of 34 antigens. These train and enable the antitumor immune response of the patient.
Meanwhile, KEYTRUDA works by boosting the ability of the immune system to pick up and combat tumor cells.
Clinical Trial
Both medicines went through a phase IIb clinical trial with 157 patients enrolled. These patients had their high-risk melanoma removed surgically. They were granted either KEYTRUDA or the mixed treatment every three weeks for around a year.
Compared to KEYTRUDA on its own, combined treatment side effects were not very different. The most prevalent symptoms were injection site pain, chills, and fatigue. Around 50% of patients were affected by the side effects.
With the observed effectiveness of the combined treatment, the US Food and Drug Administration as well as the European Medicines Agency have agreed that the medicine would be fast-tracked for approval in the future. While the approval timeline is still unclear, scientists are already working on proceeding with the phase III clinical trial, with results expected to be produced by 2029.
At present, the US FDA has only granted approval for one anti-cancer vaccine, specifically designed for prostate cancer.
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