Merck & Moderna's mRNA Cancer Vaccine Shows Promising Results
A breakthrough in cancer treatment has been made with the success of an mRNA cancer vaccine developed by Merck & Co. and Moderna Inc.
The vaccine, intismeran, was tested in a large late-stage trial and showed that it can keep melanoma from returning, as well as lengthen the time before tumors appear in other parts of the body.
This is a significant step forward for cancer treatment, which has been plagued by false starts and setbacks over the past two decades. mRNA technology has previously been used to combat infectious diseases, but this marks its first major application in cancer treatment.
The vaccine works by genetically sequencing a patient's tumor to pinpoint the mutations driving their cancer, and then packing strands of mRNA carrying the instructions for building those mutated proteins into the vaccine.
This approach has shown impressive results, with intismeran and Keytruda (another immunotherapy treatment) lowering the chances of melanoma returning or metastasizing by 49% compared to Keytruda alone in a smaller study that followed patients for five years.