American laboratories Merck and Moderna announced this Wednesday positive results in the final phase of clinical trials of their experimental messenger RNA vaccine against skin cancer, aimed at patients with advanced-stage melanoma. “This is the first announcement of positive phase 3 results (…) for an mRNA-based cancer therapy,” Merck and Moderna said in a joint statement.
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Their personalized therapy, combined with Merck’s Keytruda immunotherapy, allowed for a “statistically significant” improvement in relapse-free survival in patients with advanced-stage melanoma who had previously undergone surgery, compared to treatment with Keytruda alone, both laboratories said, without publishing numerical data.
The treatment is based on messenger RNA technology, which gives ‘instructions’ to cells to produce proteins capable of triggering an immune response
This new treatment, called intismeran autogene, is based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology, which consists of giving instructions to the body’s cells on how to produce proteins capable of triggering an immune response. It is a “tailored” therapy, designed based on the specific mutations of each patient’s tumor.
The goal is to train and activate the patient’s immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells. “For many years, the idea of creating an mRNA treatment specifically designed for a person’s cancer was hard to imagine. Today we are helping to turn that vision into reality,” said Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, quoted in the statement.
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The phase 3 clinical trial, a decisive stage before applying for marketing authorization of the treatment, was conducted with more than 1,100 people. Moderna became known to the general public by becoming one of the world pioneers of messenger RNA vaccines.
It was, in particular, one of the first companies, along with Pfizer-BioNTech, to develop and market on a large scale a vaccine with this technology against COVID-19.
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