Moderna’s personalized mRNA shot could reshape the fight against skin cancer — but it may also be overhyped

Doctors and patients are excited about the possible breakthrough, but some analysts believe there’s too much hype.

Skin cancer breakthrough delivers second act for Moderna's mRNA vaccines  thenationalnews.com

CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Céline Gounder, who has had melanoma herself, said Moderna's experimental trial is "a big win for mRNA vaccines against cancer."

Pharmaceutical companies Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, and Moderna announced on Wednesday that their individualized neoantigen therapy, intismeran autogene, met its endpoints in a phase 3 trial in melanoma patients. It is the first positive result at that stage for an mRNA-based cancer treat

The combined drug works by nudging the body's own immune system to make proteins that attack and destroy melanoma cells

The drug is based on the same messenger RNA (mRNA) technology behind Covid-19 vaccines.

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 sy

The shot, paired with Merck's Keytruda, cut the risk of melanoma recurrence in a trial of more than 1,100 patients.

The mRNA-based vaccine combined with Keytruda reduced melanoma recurrence in more than 1,100 patients whose cancer had been surgically removed