PERSONALIZED VACCINE:
The new treatment involves identifying the ‘signature’ of a person’s tumor and using mRNA tech to fight the cancer, an oncologist said
US drugmakers Merck and Moderna on Wednesday said a personalized cancer treatment had shown success in reducing the recurrence of melanoma tumors in a late-stage trial hailed by experts as a “breakthrough.”The drug, called “intismeran autogene,” is based on the same messenger RNA (mRNA) technology behind COVID-19 vaccines.Researchers have for years been trying to apply mRNA treatments against cancer, but this was the first time such a drug showed positive results in a large, late-stage clinical trial.
A combination photo shows Moderna logo, top, at its headquarters on May 8, 2020, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Merck’s logo at its headquarters in Rahway, New Jersey, on Feb. 5, 2024.
“Today marks an extraordinary milestone for Moderna, for mRNA science and, most importantly, for patients with cancer,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement.The trial lasted about one year and involved 1,137 patients who, following surgical removal of their cancers, were randomized into groups, with two-thirds receiving the new treatment plus pembrolizumab — the standard-of-care drug — while the rest received pembrolizumab alone.
