A new clinical trial has shown that skin cancer survivors can cut their risk of recurrence by almost half with a new experimental vaccine and immunotherapy, researchers say.
Researchers at NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center conducted a study with 157 male and female test subjects who had undergone surgery to remove skin cancer after it had spread to lymph nodes or other organs. These subjects were also considered at high risk for cancer returning in sites distant from the original melanoma, according to a press release from NYU Langone Health.
A study on a new vaccine which uses M.R.N.A technology is showing promising signs in the fight against Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. pic.twitter.com/LSKAiPDTl1
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) April 17, 2023
In the study, these 107 subjects were injected with both the experimental vaccine, mRNA-4157/V940, and the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab. Over the course of 3 years, researchers found that cancer returned in only 24 of the 107 subjects (22.4 percent) as opposed to 20 out of 50 patients (40 percent) who only received the pembrolizumab, the press release stated. Overall, the study showed that when used in conjunction with immunotherapy, the experimental vaccine reduced the risk of recurrent melanoma by 44 percent.
“Our phase 2b study shows that a neoantigen mRNA vaccine, when used in combination with pembrolizumab, resulted in prolonged time without recurrence or death compared with pembrolizumab alone,”study senior investigator Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, the deputy director of Perlmutter Cancer Center, stated in the release.
While Phase 2 trials for the vaccine, like this study, help to provide preliminary reassurance to researchers of the vaccine’s effectiveness, randomized phase 3 trials are still needed to determine whether treatment with the vaccine is better than current standard therapies, the release explained. After the successful results from this study, NYU Langone and other medical centers around the world are already planning Phase 3 trials. (RELATED: American Woman Receives First-Ever Breast Cancer Vaccine)
Though immunotherapies are the norm for treating melanoma, the press release explained, they aren’t always effective as melanoma cells are notorious for their ability to “evade the immune system” and become resistant to immunotherapy drugs. By adding vaccines, researchers are hoping to target proteins involved in cancer development, the press release stated.