American pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck reported successful trials of a vaccine against melanoma — a dangerous form of skin cancer, UNN reports, citing Bild.
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According to the results of a study involving more than 1,100 patients, combining the vaccine with Keytruda reduced the relative risk of disease recurrence or death by 42%, and the risk of distant metastases or death by 38%. The study results are planned to be presented at the congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Madrid.
The vaccine's distinctive feature is that it is created individually for each patient, taking into account the genetic mutations of their tumor. The drug is intended to "teach" the immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells.
Two years after treatment, more than 82% of patients who received the vaccine together with Keytruda remained alive without disease recurrence. In the control group, where Keytruda was administered with a placebo, this figure was 70%.
The new therapy is intended for patients whose melanoma has already been surgically removed, in order to prevent the disease from returning. It is not a preventive cancer vaccine.
The drug remains experimental and has not yet been approved for widespread use.