U.S. labs Moderna and Merck announced on Tuesday preliminary positive results for a messenger RNA vaccine in development against skin cancer when taken in combination with an anticancer drug.
In a study of nearly 150 people with melanoma, taking the vaccine along with the cancer drug Keytruda reduced the risk of cancer recurrence or death by 44% compared to people who received the drug alone.
“For the first time, we have demonstrated the potential of messenger RNA to impact a randomized clinical trial in melanoma,” said Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel.
Moderna and Merck, known outside of North America as MSD, plan to soon publish the full results of the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, and begin what they call Phase 3 trials in 2023, which will include a much larger number of patients. .
Messenger RNA technology has proven to be effective in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Moderna was one of the first pharmaceutical companies, along with Pfizer-BioNTech, to offer a COVID-19 vaccine using messenger RNA.
This technology is considered promising in the fight against many other diseases.
The cancer drug Keytruda has been approved in the US.
The melanoma vaccine under development is “personalised, designed and manufactured based on a unique mutational signature” identified in a patient’s tumor, Bansel said.
In the trial, patients underwent surgery to remove a tumor before receiving treatment, up to nine doses of the vaccine.
Around 325,000 new cases of melanoma were diagnosed worldwide in 2020, the statement said.