Two major American pharmaceutical companies have announced the progression of a world-first personalised cancer vaccine that could reduce the risk of recurrence and spread of melanoma.
Melanoma is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in Australia, and one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer.
Shares in Moderna, one of the companies behind the trial, more than doubled following the announcement.
They are now working to have the vaccine approved for use.
How it works
The vaccine was developed by Moderna and Merck using mRNA technology.
mRNA first made headlines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It works by sending a message to our cells, teaching them how to respond to threats to our immune system by building specialised proteins that can fight disease.
The new vaccine, called intismeran, uses the same technology as the mRNA COVID vaccine.
A key difference is that it is personalised to each patient.
It’s designed to target melanoma cells specifically, training the immune system to find and attack them.
The vaccine doesn’t prevent a person from developing cancer in the first place.
Instead, it seeks to prevent it from recurring.
Here’s how it works:
Doctors take a sample of a patient’s tumour and sequence it, revealing unique mutations.
Those mutations show up as markers called neoantigens, which act like flags for the immune system.
AI tools then help scientists narrow down which neoantigens are likely to trigger the strongest immune response.
The vaccine is built to match them, training the body to recognise and attack the cancer.
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The trial
The research was led by 2024 Australian of the Year Professor Georgina Long.
The vaccine was tested in a phase 3 trial of 1,137 patients with high-risk melanoma that had been surgically removed.
Phase 3 is the final and largest stage of testing a treatment goes through before being made available to the public.
It’s designed to confirm a treatment works and is safe, using a much bigger group of patients than earlier trials, before regulators will consider approval.
During the trial, the vaccine was tested alongside Keytruda, Merck’s existing immunotherapy drug.
Some patients received the vaccine plus Keytruda.
Others received Keytruda alone.
The results of the trial showed the combination of the two together reduced the risk of the cancer returning or spreading.
Concerns
Experts have flagged that building a personalised vaccine is expensive and slow.
After a tumour sample is collected, each dose takes several weeks to develop.
Some patients with advanced cancer may not survive long enough to receive it.
Wider use will depend on making the process faster and cheaper.
What’s next?
Merck and Moderna will now take these results to regulators, seeking approval before intismeran can be used more widely.
They also plan to share more detailed results at an upcoming medical conference.
Researchers caution that patients will need years of follow-up before it’s clear whether the vaccine actually extends lives, rather than simply delaying recurrence.
