Merck & Moderna's mRNA Cancer Vaccine Extends Melanoma Remission
Merck & Co. and Moderna Inc.'s mRNA-based cancer vaccine has shown promising results in a late-stage trial, keeping melanoma from returning in patients. The personalized vaccine, intismeran, was given with Keytruda to extend the time before melanoma returned and spread.
The companies reported the late-stage results through a press release but did not include numbers showing the size of intismeran's benefit. However, they mentioned that a smaller five-year study found intismeran plus Keytruda lowered the chance of melanoma returning or metastasizing by 49% compared to Keytruda alone.
Merck plans to share the full data from the intismeran study at an upcoming medical meeting or in a journal. Oncologists will comb through it to understand not only how much longer it can keep cancer from recurring or spreading but whether certain patients fare better than others.