The first melanoma vaccine passed phase 3 in a large-scale clinical trial
The pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck have reported the success of this personalized vaccine with messenger RNA along with immunotherapy treatment.
American pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck announced on Wednesday the success of their experimentalvaccine , based on messenger RNA, which is being tested against melanoma, the worst skin cancer, in phase 3. This announcement has raised hopes for effective treatment against this pathology in the near future, with a sharp increase in shares of both companies on the stock market.
In this clinical trial, a personalized vaccinewith messenger RNA (the same technology used in Covid-19 vaccines) has been combined with a Merck homeimmunotherapy treatment (pembrolizumab).
According to companies, the combination of vaccine and immunotherapy with this treatment has exceeded two major goals: to survive without relapsing and to survive without metastasis in other organs.
In this case, it has not been determined how much these two targets have been exceeded, while in phase 2B of the trial published in January, companies reported that treatment had reduced the risk of relapse by 49% in 5 years and the risk of metastasis by 59%.
Personalized vaccine for each patient
The study has involved 1,137 patients with high-risk skin melanoma type III and IV, all of whom wereoperated to remove the tumor and scientists have analyzed each patient's tumors, creating a vaccine that will trigger an immune response against the specific characteristics of that particular tumor.
So it's a personalized vaccine for every patient that's being used in this case, not like the vaccines that have been used so far, a vaccine that can be given to anyone.
Moderna and Merck have stressed that the results obtained are "crucial" as this is the first study to target melanoma and pass phase 3. They have announced that they will continue to continue testing to evaluate other parameters.
If everything went well and came to the health systems, it would be used in post-surgical treatments, "with the aim of increasing the chances of more patients being cured," according to Dean Li, president of Merks Laboratories.
The clinical development program jointly conducted by Moderna and Merck (known as INTerpath) also includes nine other clinical trials combining messenger RNA vaccines with immunotherapy, which are at different stages and aim to curelung, bladder, or cell renal carcinoma tumors .
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