A personalized mRNA vaccine for melanoma reduced the risk of the cancer returning in a phase III clinical trial, the companies behind the trial announced this week. The vaccine ' which relies on the same mRNA technology used to develop COVID-19 shots ' is the first mRNA-based cancer treatment to show success in a late-stage trial. 'It's incredibly exciting,' says Seth Cheetham, an mRNA scientist at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. 'This is the first really large-scale trial' to release data for a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine. The results put it a step closer to regulatory approval for wider use and could bolster the whole field, he adds. Marco Gerlinger, a medical oncologist at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, says the study provides proof of principle that personalized cancer vaccines work. 'This is important as they can be designed against many different cancer types,' adds Gerlinger, who is a principal investigator on a trial for a cancer vaccine being...
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