New mRNA Vaccine Reduces Risk of Melanoma Recurrence by Over 40 Percent
An experimental vaccine offers new hope to patients with melanoma, one of the most aggressive forms of skin cancer. The pharmaceutical companies Merck and Moderna released the results of a Phase 3 clinical trial that evaluated the efficacy of a personalized mRNA-based vaccine that, when combined with immunotherapy, reduced the risk of disease recurrence or death by 42 percent compared to treatment with the immunotherapy drug alone.
Georgina Long, medical director of the Australian Melanoma Institute and the study’s principal investigator, said in a statement that these results are “transformative” and “have the potential to make a foundational shift in how we treat patients with earlier-stage melanoma.”
The trial, known as INTerpath-001, included 1,137 people with high-risk melanoma who had undergone surgery to completely remove their tumors. The participants were divided into two groups. Those in the first group received only Pembrolizumab, a drug that helps the immune system...
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