HOUSTON — MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston has been chosen as a site for the third phase of a cancer vaccine clinical trial.
On Sunday, Moderna and Merck reported promising results from the second phase of their study for an mRNA vaccine for melanoma. The vaccine makers found that after two years, patients who received the vaccines saw a 44% decrease in recurrence compared with patients who received standard care.
The technology behind mRNA vaccines became common knowledge during COVID-19. These vaccines teach our cells how to fight a virus instead of using a weakened or inactivated virus, like traditional vaccines.
Now, there's promising data that shows scientists are one step closer to using mRNA vaccines to treat cancers, specifically melanoma.
“Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer,” explained Dr. Hussein Tawbi, a professor and deputy chair of Melanoma Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. “While it only represents about 10% of all skin cancers…it’s responsible for almost 80% of all deaths related to skin cancer.”
Dr. Tawbi said melanoma often recurs because these cells can easily hide from the body’s immune system.
“There is a risk that [recurrence] could be as high as 60% or 70%... that the tumor can still come back," Dr. Tawbi said.
For several years Merk and Moderna have been working on an mRNA vaccine to treat melanoma.
During its phase 2 trial, out of 107 volunteer patients, half receive standard melanoma treatment and a placebo while the other half received standard treatment in addition to nine doses of a personalized vaccine. These vaccines are formulated based on genome sequencing of a person’s tumor. Each person will have a different vaccine based on their specific tumor’s genetic makeup.
Dr. Tawbi is cautiously optimistic about the findings.
“It was actually quite impressive,” Tawbi said. “Almost a 44% decrease in the risk of recurrence, which is a really large decrease.”
But the study was small, Dr. Tawbi noted. However, the results were promising enough to move on to stage 3 of the clinical trial. Tawbi said the next phase will include about a thousand patients globally. Dr. Tawbi will lead the study at MD Anderson.
“If we can prove that this is an even more effective approach, then we can be bringing this new treatment to patients across the world, not just in Houston and at MD Anderson.”
MD Anderson is also taking part in an mRNA vaccine trial for colorectal cancer. Those preliminary results are expected in the next year or two.