Breakthrough Personalized mRNA Vaccines Are Highly Effective Against Melanoma Skin Cancers

Pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck announced today the highly promising results of their anti-cancer mRNA vaccine Phase 3 clinical trial targeting later-stage melanoma skin cancers. Researchers sequenced the DNA from each patient's tumors to create personalized vaccines that, when injected, rev up the immune system to destroy the cancer cells while leaving healthy tissues alone. The versatile mRNA platform enables researchers to manufacture bespoke vaccines for each patient in just six weeks. Some arms of the clinical trial paired the new mRNA vaccines with Merck's Keytruda, a monoclonal antibody checkpoint inhibitor that enables immune cells to identify and kill cancer cells. The patients in the clinical trial had been diagnosed with Stage IIB to Stage IV melanoma cancers. All had