Personalised cancer vaccine expected to be approved next year

A personalised mRNA vaccine for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is anticipated to receive approval for use in the United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom within the next year. The vaccine aims to trigger immune responses against individual genetic mutations present in one's cancer. In a late-stage trial, when used alongside standard treatment, it significantly reduced the likelihood of cancer recurrence or death within the next two years.

Alan Melcher, from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, believes the approval process could be swift, with next year being a reasonable estimate. Rebecca Lee from the University of Manchester concurs, stating that the vaccine could provide substantial benefits for thousands of people in the UK alone, based on the trial's patient population.

The trial, conducted in August, involved over 1100 adults who had surgery to remove high-risk melanomas with a high likelihood of recurrence or distant spread. Out of the participants, two-thirds received a personalized vaccine in addition to standard immunotherapy (pembrolizumab), administered every three weeks for up to a year. The remaining participants received placebo injections alongside pembrolizumab.

The vaccine is created by sequencing a small sample of a person's cancer and comparing it with their healthy blood cells, enabling researchers to identify mutations unique to the cancer. With the same technology used in COVID-19 vaccines, the cancer vaccine contains mRNA molecules encoding proteins associated with up to 34 of those mutations.

Based on the trial's findings, 82% of participants who received the vaccine plus pembrolizumab were alive without cancer recurrence, on average, two years after treatment initiation, compared to 70% among those on pembrolizumab alone. This result is considered highly promising, with side effects being similar between the two groups.

However, since the participants have not been tracked long enough to determine if the vaccine improves overall survival rates, this metric should primarily reflect its ability to reduce recurrence.