A vaccine made from your own tumour cut melanoma's return risk by 42% in a landmark trial

For people who have had high-risk melanoma removed, the fear is that it comes back. In the INTerpath-001 trial, led by Professor Georgina Long of Melanoma Institute Australia and presented at the ESMO Congress in Madrid, 1,137 patients with stage IIB to IV melanoma received either standard immunotherapy (pembrolizumab) or pembrolizumab plus intismeran — a vaccine built individually from the mutations in each person's own tumour. The combination cut the risk of the cancer returning or of death by 42%: after two years, 82.2% of the combination group remained free of recurrence, compared with 70% on immunotherapy alone, and the risk of the cancer spreading to distant parts of the body fell by 38%. The treatment is not yet approved, and longer follow-up will show whether it also extends lives — but it is the strongest evidence yet that a vaccine tailored to one person's cancer can keep it away.

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