By Robert Hart 

Cancer vaccines are finally showing promise as Moderna and Merck touted promising data on an experimental skin cancer vaccine and the U.K. announced plans for a “landmark” scheme to test the technology across the country this week, after decades of research that could bring a new era of personalized medicine.

-Merck and Moderna released “extremely impressive” positive data from a mid-stage trial of the world’s first personalized mRNA cancer vaccine for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, which when used alongside Merck’s blockbuster immunotherapy, Keytruda, halved the risk of patients dying or the cancer returning.

-The trial, the longest study into the new technology so far, is one of a growing number of collaborations testing how mRNA vaccines — the technology underpinning COVID-19 in shots from Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna — can be turned against different types of cancer.

-mRNA, short for messenger ribonucleic acid, is a kind of informational molecule that carries instructions for cells on how to make proteins, including antigens that can stimulate the immune system.

-While mRNA shots for viruses like COVID-19 are designed to prevent disease by instructing cells to produce a harmless viral protein that trains the immune system to recognize and defend against the virus in the future, mRNA cancer vaccines are therapeutic and are for people who already have cancer.

-Each vaccine is developed using samples of their cancer and personalized to an individual patient using genetic sequencing and artificial intelligence, priming the immune system to recognize unique mutations or features of the cancer cells and attack them if any are remaining or resurface after treatments like surgery, boosting chances of recovery and remaining cancer free in the future.

-In addition to melanoma, trials of the personalized vaccines are already planned or underway for a wide range of cancers, including other skin cancers, neck and head, lung, pancreatic, bladder and kidney cancers, and experts have hailed the shots as “gamechangers” that offer a real hope of curing cancer.

While mRNA cancer vaccines are starting to show promise and experts hint a paradigm shift for cancer treatment is on the horizon, it is still early days for the therapy. The treatments have a long way to go until entering mainstream clinical practice. Until approval, the vaccine treatments are considered experimental and will primarily be available as part of clinical trials, for which patients around the world, including the U.S., are already being recruited. In late May, England announced a first-of-its kind scheme aimed at streamlining the often difficult recruitment process for trials. The country’s National Health Service will act as a matchmaker setting up thousands of patients with different clinical trials for specific cancer shots as part of the scheme, which is called the Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad. Victoria Kunene, a clinician leading the trial at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, said she believes the vaccines mark a “new era,” adding that she hopes they become “the standard of care” one day.

Merck and Moderna said they started late stage clinical trials for both their melanoma vaccine and a lung cancer vaccine, both of which are “actively enrolling” participants. The firms have also started mid-to-late stage trials of squamous cell carcinoma, another type of skin cancer, as well as a type of kidney cancer and urothelial carcinoma, which makes up most bladder cancers.

Late last year, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel told AFP of the melanoma vaccine: “We think that in some countries the product could be launched under accelerated approval by 2025,” describing the vaccines as “immunotherapy 2.0.”

The early successes of Moderna’s cancer vaccine has helped shore up confidence in the company and its future. While Moderna flourished during the pandemic, its coronavirus shots remain its only product on the market. This will soon change following the recent approval of its RSV shot, its second ever, but Moderna has struggled to maintain its profile amid an influx of mRNA competitors and dwindling demand for Covid jabs. Though it maintains a robust pipeline of traditional vaccines in development that use its mRNA technology — such as for Lyme disease, flu and norovirus — the company has bet big on its personalized cancer treatments and is clear it plans to be at the forefront of this new frontier of medicine.