Merck and Moderna's Experimental Cancer Vaccine Shows Promising Results
A late-stage trial of Merck and Moderna's experimental personalized mRNA-based cancer vaccine, Intismeran, has shown promising results in preventing melanoma from returning or spreading in high-risk patients.
The study combined Intismeran with Merck’s Keytruda in 1,137 patients who had melanomas surgically removed. The companies said the trial met its main goal of extending “recurrence-free survival” (RFS), which is how long high-risk patients live without melanoma coming back.
The study also met a secondary goal of preventing cancer from spreading to different parts of the body.
Intismeran uses a patient's tumor sample to identify the unique mutational signature of their cancer and generate an antitumor immune response. The mutations are encoded into mRNA and manufactured into a vaccine.
Merck Research Laboratories President Dean Li said in an interview that most people who were disease-free after one year remained disease-free after five years, based on an earlier study.