Giacomo Gorini: Phase II results of an anti-melanoma mRNA vaccine by Moderna and Merck

Giacomo Gorini, antibody immunologist from the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard, shared on LinkedIn:

“Many thanks to la Repubblica (one of Italy’s top national newspapers) for featuring me in an interview on the phase II results of an anti-melanoma mRNA vaccine by Moderna and Merck.

In a nutshell:

– people suffering from melanoma have mutations in their cancerous skin cells which lead to the production of cancer-specific proteins. note: mutation profiles change from patient to patient.

– remember how with covid vaccines we used to receive mRNA sequences of a viral component, Spike? Here, patients receive a vaccine with the sequence of up to 34 tumor-specific proteins. This trains their immune system to specifically target these proteins.

– that’s right: all the patients received a “personal vaccine” tailored on the mutations of their own personal cancer cells. mind-blowing.

– the vaccine, administered together with standard treatment, was tested in patients who had their melanoma fully removed. The control group included standard treatment alone. The novel approach was well tolerated in phase II, almost halving the risk of recurrence or death vs control group.

Phase III (final stage) trials are just starting. High hopes!”

Source: Giacomo Gorini / LinkedIn