Moderna search for skin cancer vaccine ‘promising’
The positive results come after six years of collaborative work.
A vaccine meant to reduce the risk of dying from skin cancer is in the offing, with promising early results.
Drug makers Moderna and Merck are using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology – same as what is used to make some Covid-19 vaccines – to develop the cancer vaccine.
If successful, the vaccine will be used together with the drug Keytruda, developed by Merck to treat melanoma (skin cancer) from stage three and four. The study is still in phase 2 of clinical trials.
The clinical trial had 157 participants with stage three or four melanoma. They underwent surgery to remove their tumours.
The patients were then placed in two groups. One group was given the mRNA vaccine and Keytruda, while the other was only given the drug.
Preliminary findings show that a combination of the mRNA technology and Keytruda reduces the risk of death by 44 per cent compared to taking the drug alone.
The vaccine works by triggering the immune system to act on killer T-cells by targeting specific changes of a skin cancer tumour.
The Merck drug is given as an injection and works by averting some cell proteins from attacking the body.
“The results are highly encouraging for the field of cancer treatment. mRNA has been transformative for Covid-19. For the first time, we have demonstrated the potential for mRNA to have an impact on outcomes in a randomised clinical trial in melanoma,” Moderna Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel said.
“We will begin additional studies in melanoma and other forms of cancer with the aim of bringing truly individualised treatment to ca ncer patients. We look forward to publishing the full data and sharing the results at an upcoming oncology conference and with health authorities.”
Merck Research Laboratories president Dean Y Li said the positive results have come after six years of working collaboratively using different technology for better outcomes for cancer patients.
“We look forward to advancing this programme to the next phase of development,” he said.
Study principal investigator Jerey Weber, said the results of the randomised phase 2b trial are exciting. “This data provides the first evidence that we can improve on the rates of recurrence-free survival achieved by blockade in resected high-risk melanoma,” he said.
“The findings also provide the first randomised evidence that a personalised neo antigen approach may be beneficial in melanoma.”
According to the Cancer Research Centre of the United Kingdom, unlike most vaccines that can be given to people who do not have particular diseases, most cancer vaccines are given to people who already have been diagnosed with the illness.
Such vaccines are called therapeutic.
“The vaccines help a body’s immune system recognise and attack cancer cells. In the same way that vaccines work against diseases, the vaccines are made to recognise proteins that are on particular cancer cells,” the centre said.
explains the Cancer Research Centre.
Other vaccines, like the Covid-19 vaccine, help us in reducing the severity of a disease should we get an infection and also minimises the risk of dying. They are called preventive vaccines. There exist some preventive vaccines used for cancer, most of which are used to prevent Human Papillomavirus Virus (HPV), a viral infection that can cause cervical cancer.
Apart from the mRNA vaccine technology that Moderna and Merck are still researching, other researchers are also using other types such as; protein or peptide vaccines, Dendritic cell vaccines, virus vaccines and DNA vaccines.
