Melanoma Vaccine Ushers in New Hope for Cancer Patients — SkimNews
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- Merck and Moderna announced on Thursday that melanoma patients who received the experimental vaccine were 42% less likely to experience a recurrence of the cancer within two years than those who did not receive it; the treatment is a candidate to become the first vaccine of its kind used to treat cancer.
- Moderna and Merck have yet to show that the treatment can prolong melanoma patients' overall survival, leaving the recurrence finding without a survival result so far.
- Steven Rosenberg, chief of the surgery branch at the National Cancer Institute and a pioneer of immunotherapy, said thousands of papers have been written on therapeutic cancer vaccines, underscoring how long researchers have pursued the idea.
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center established a center in 2024 dedicated to designing, producing and administering cancer vaccines on site.
- The federal government announced a $200 million public-private partnership this year to advance therapeutic cancer vaccines.
- Melanoma is easier to target with, and particularly responsive to, immune-harnessing therapies, and the source notes it remains unclear whether vaccines will work as favorably against glioblastoma, pancreatic cancer and other hard-to-treat tumors now under study.
Why it matters: For melanoma patients facing recurrence, a 42% drop over two years is a concrete payoff from an idea researchers chased for decades. With overall survival still unproven and melanoma unusually responsive to immune therapies, the $200 million public-private partnership and Memorial Sloan Kettering's 2024 vaccine center push the approach toward cancers where benefit remains unshown.
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