The drug, intismeran autogene, treats melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, of which the US National Cancer Institute estimates there will be more than 100,000 new cases this year. It can often recur even after a tumour is surgically removed.<\/p>\n
On patients with resected melanoma \u2013 a tumour that was completely removed \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
Under the same regimen, intismeran also prevented recurrence and metastasis in the larger, Phase 3 trial of 1137 patients, Merck and Moderna said on Wednesday. The companies did not release the full results of the study itself, which have not yet been independently reviewed, but said the trial met its primary endpoint of improving recurrence-free survival. They will announce data from the trial in an upcoming meeting.<\/p>\n
Merck, which also makes Keytruda, and Moderna have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in personalised mRNA cancer-vaccine technology since the mid-2010s, well before the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n
The stakes extend well beyond melanoma. Experts said the trial\u2019s success could help establish a new way of treating cancer; versions of the treatment are already being studied in lung, kidney, bladder and other cancers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is exciting,\u201d said Antoni Ribas, a professor of medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles, of the intismeran trial results. \u201cThat hasn\u2019t happened ever, with any cancer vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018The next frontier\u2019<\/p>\n
Intismeran represents a significant advance in cancer care.<\/p>\n
Rather than giving every patient the same treatment, researchers first sequence a patient\u2019s tumour and compare it with normal cells to identify mutations unique to the cancer.<\/p>\n
A computer algorithm then selects up to 34 of the resulting abnormal proteins most likely to attract an immune response, and those instructions are encoded into a custom-made mRNA vaccine for that individual patient.<\/p>\n
The personalised mRNA vaccine and Keytruda are designed to deliver a one-two punch against cancer. The vaccine teaches the immune system to recognise mutations unique to a patient\u2019s tumour, essentially showing it what to attack.<\/p>\n
Keytruda then helps release a \u201cbrake\u201d that cancer can use to hold the immune system back, allowing immune cells to more effectively attack the cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is representative of the next frontier of cancer immunotherapy,\u201d Karen Knudsen, CEO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, told The Post.<\/p>\n
Knudsen added that longer follow-ups would be needed to determine if the protection against recurrence caused by the drug continues to hold up in patients over time.<\/p>\n
The safety profile of intismeran and Keytruda \u201cremains consistent\u201d with its previous reports, which have noted that the number of serious reactions were comparable to patients who received only Keytruda, Merck and Moderna said. The most commonly reported side effects related to intismeran were fatigue, pain at the site of injection, and chills, the drugmakers disclosed in December 2023.<\/p>\n
mRNA-based treatments deliver instructions to cells to produce specific proteins that trigger the body\u2019s immune response and gained prominence as the platform that allowed drugmakers to speedily develop the coronavirus vaccines during the covid-19 pandemic. They have since come under fire from the Trump administration, which has cast largely unfounded claims about the technology\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n
mRNA injections can be faster to design and manufacture than conventional vaccines. Drugmakers were able to pivot to produce coronavirus vaccines so quickly because of existing research into mRNA cancer treatments, said Hoge, the Moderna president.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn many ways, Covid [vaccines] depended upon our investments and strategy around oncology in order to come into existence,\u201d Hoge said. \u201cThis is a bit of coming home and seeing all that investment in messenger RNA technology really serve its original purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoge did not say when Moderna will apply for FDA approval of intismeran but said the company would move \u201cas fast as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Daniel Gilbert contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The drug, intismeran autogene, treats melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, of which the US National Cancer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6127,682,138,2534,63590,2814,124,35938,1872,59965,90269,68929,4505,83511,111,139,69,193,6293,2989,15483,5909,3048,4514,23554,1245,37118,145,3422,2766,54,3382,14216,3059,151018,102],"class_list":["post-574494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-already","tag-being","tag-business","tag-cancer","tag-cancers","tag-coronavirus","tag-could","tag-drugmakers","tag-face","tag-landmark","tag-merck","tag-moderna","tag-moment","tag-mrna","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-other","tag-patients","tag-positive","tag-promising","tag-results","tag-said","tag-same","tag-showed","tag-skin","tag-studied","tag-technology","tag-therapy","tag-treatment","tag-trial","tag-using","tag-vaccine","tag-vaccines","tag-versions","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}