A new study showed that the first personalized mRNA cancer vaccine for melanoma can cut in half the chance of dying or getting the cancer again.
The vaccine, called mRNA-4157 (V940), was created by Moderna and Merck. It has shown positive results that could change the way cancer is treated in a big way.
Significant Progress in Treating Melanoma
Over 150,000 people around the world are diagnosed with melanoma every year. Often, traditional treatments haven't been able to cut the risk of return significantly in advanced cases.
But, new trial results shown at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) showed that people who got the personalized mRNA vaccine along with the immunotherapy drug Keytruda had a 49% lower chance of dying or getting the cancer back within three years of surgery.
One hundred fifty-seven people with high-risk melanoma who had stage 3 or stage 4 melanoma removed took part in the study. The participants were split into two groups. One group got the mRNA vaccine and Keytruda, and the other just got Keytruda.
Recurrence-free survival rates were much higher with the combination treatment; at 2.5 years, 74.8% of patients were still disease-free, compared to 55.6% for those on Keytruda alone. Each person gets a vaccine called mRNA-4157 (V940) made just for them. A small piece of the growth is removed during surgery and studied using DNA sequencing and AI.
This process creates a one-of-a-kind vaccine tailored to the patient's type of cancer. mRNA technology tells the patient's cells to make proteins that attack any leftover cancer cells with the immune system. This makes it less likely that the disease will come back.
The lead researcher and oncologist, Professor Georgina Long, discussed the groundbreaking findings. She said that even though the data needs to be examined for five and ten years, this group's biggest risk of return occurs in the first two years.
She also mentioned that the chance of recurrence dropped from 50% to 25% with the new combination therapy. She stressed the importance of larger studies to confirm these results.
More General Effects and Directions for the Future
The study for melanoma was successful, which means that similar methods can be used for other types of cancer. A different survey given at the ASCO meeting, led by the University of Vienna, found that cancer vaccines make it much more likely for people with breast cancer to survive.
Four hundred people with early-stage breast cancer were part of this study. After seven years, 81% of those who got a vaccine before surgery were still alive, while only 65% of those in the standard care group were still alive.
Dr. Christian Singer, the lead author of the breast cancer study, said that the data were unprecedented. It was the first time that a significant and long-lasting increase in the mortality rate of breast cancer patients after getting an anti-cancer vaccine had been reported, he said.
Cancer Research UK's top clinician, Professor Charles Swanton, discussed how mRNA vaccines could change how cancer is treated. He said the melanoma trial's results were "extremely impressive." He was also optimistic about the new vaccine method, seeing it as an essential part that could help more patients get better or fewer patients get the disease back.
In the UK, the NHS is one of the groups trying this new treatment by quickly enrolling patients in trials to learn more about how well the vaccine works. As personalized medicine moves forward, the partnership between Moderna, Merck, and global research institutions shows a bright future where personalized cancer treatments will significantly increase the number of people who survive the disease.
The custom mRNA cancer vaccine will completely change the fight against melanoma and maybe even other cancers. This innovative treatment gives cancer patients all over the world new hope because it can significantly lower the risk of return and increase the number of people who survive. As more tests and studies are done, this new way of doing things will change how cancer is treated.
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