Georgina Long, Medical Director of Melanoma Institute Australia and Chair of Melanoma Medical Oncology and Translational Research at the University of Sydney, shared on X:
“I am delighted to share that the results of the INTerpath-001 trial have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
It was a privilege to lead this study as first author and chair of the steering committee, together with medical oncology colleagues from around the world and at Melanoma Institute Australia.
The trial tested a personalised therapeutic cancer vaccine, as distinct from a preventative vaccine, combined with pembrolizumab. It was given to people with melanoma who had already had surgery but were at high risk of the cancer coming back.
The therapy is made for each person, based on the changes found in their own tumour.
Adding the personalised therapy to pembrolizumab reduced the risk of the cancer returning or of death by 58% compared with pembrolizumab alone, from six months after the start of therapy.
This result rests on science, and science rests on facts. It stands on more than a century of incremental discovery and innovation, with each generation building on the last.
What I love most is the spirit of exploration: we never assume we have it right, and we keep learning and refining.
None of this would be possible without the patients and families who took part, and the teams at every site who worked so generously together across many countries.
This is what global collaboration looks like, and I am so grateful to be part of it.”
About INTerpath-001
The Phase 3 study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine on November 11, 2026, under the title “Intismeran Autogene plus Pembrolizumab for Resected Stage IIB to IV Melanoma.” Georgina Long was the first author.
The trial randomized 1,137 patients with completely resected stage IIB–IV cutaneous melanoma to receive individualized neoantigen therapy intismeran autogene plus pembrolizumab or placebo plus pembrolizumab. At 24 months, recurrence-free survival was 82.2% versus 70.0%, respectively.
Across the full intention-to-treat analysis, the combination reduced the risk of recurrence or death by 42%. In the prespecified analysis beginning six months after treatment initiation, when the immunization regimen had been delivered, the reduction was 58%. Distant-metastasis-free survival at 24 months was 88.5% versus 80.2%.
The therapy is individualized using the mutational profile of each patient’s tumor and is designed to generate immune responses against patient-specific neoantigens. Overall survival data remain immature.
Title: Intismeran Autogene plus Pembrolizumab for Resected Stage IIB to IV Melanoma
Authors: Georgina V. Long, Muhammad A. Khattak, Helen J. Gogas, Dirk Schadendorf, Ana Arance, Matteo S. Carlino, Piotr Rutkowski, Gareth Rivalland, Antoni Ribas, Janice M. Mehnert, Patrick A. Ott, Reinhard Dummer, Paola Queirolo, Christoffer Gebhardt, Caroline Dutriaux, Carlos Rojas, Yuanbin Chen, Lisa M. Tachiki, Ronnie Shapira-Frommer, Oliver Bechter, Ryan J. Sullivan, Alexander M. M. Eggermont, Laureen S. Ojalvo, Michelle Brown, Jinchun Zhang, Dmitri O. Grebennik, Mizuho Fukunaga-Kalabis, Paolo A. Ascierto, Michele Del Vecchio.
Read more articles about Melanoma on OncoDaily.
INTerpath-001 Trial: Personalized mRNA Cancer Vaccine in High-Risk Melanoma
