Cancer treatment could face landmark moment with promising vaccine
Daniel Wu and Eariana Eunjung Cha in Washington Post, Aug 2026
(from the article)- “An experimental drug that uses messenger RNA to deliver a vaccine customized to a patient’s tumors effectively prevented skin cancer recurrence in a large-scale clinical trial, according to new results announced by drugmakers Wednesday.
Researchers have explored the use of mRNA drugs — the same technology behind the leading coronavirus vaccines that helped end the pandemic — to treat cancer for years, but this one is the first to clear a Phase 3 trial, according to Moderna and Merck.
That opens the door for the Food and Drug Administration to potentially approve the first mRNA-based cancer treatment, in what would be a landmark moment for the fast-emerging field.
“It was an idea 10 years ago, it was a dream still three or four years ago, and now it feels like very much a reality,” Moderna President Stephen Hoge told The Washington Post.
The drug, intismeran autogene, treats melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, of which the National Cancer Institute estimates there will be more than 100,000 new cases this year. It can often recur even after a tumor is surgically removed.
On patients with resected melanoma — a tumor that was completely removed — the drug was previously found in Phase 2 trials to cut the risk of recurrence or death by nearly half after five years when combined with an approved immunotherapy, Keytruda, compared with patients who were just given Keytruda…”
