A vaccine built from a patient's own tumour cut melanoma recurrence or death by 42% in a Phase 3 trial

Dr Georgina Long of Melanoma Institute Australia calls it a first: a treatment built from the unique 'fingerprint' of a patient's own tumour. In the Phase 3 INTerpath-001 trial, 1,137 adults whose later-stage melanomas had been removed by surgery received either the immunotherapy pembrolizumab alone, or pembrolizumab plus intismeran — a personalised vaccine made by sequencing each patient's tumour and building an mRNA 'wanted poster' carrying up to 34 genetic signals that teach the immune system what to hunt. Adding the vaccine reduced the risk of the cancer returning or of death by 42%. 'This is the first phase 3 study to show that a treatment built from the unique fingerprint of a patient's own tumor can reduce the risk of recurrence or death from cancer,' Long said, presenting the results at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Madrid.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation