The skin cancer vaccine, called mRNA-4157 (V940), began to be applied to patients with advanced melanoma in its last phase of clinical trials before being submitted for approval by regulatory bodies in the United Kingdom.
The vaccine is developed by the pharmaceutical company Moderna in partnership with MSD and uses the same technology as the vaccine against Covid-19: messenger RNA (mRNA). The difference, in this case, is that the technology is capable of creating a personalized version of the vaccine, suited to the needs of each patient.
The phase 3 study evaluates the effectiveness of the vaccine combined with Keytruda (pembrolizumab), an immunotherapy drug against skin cancer, compared to the current treatment, which uses only immunotherapy.
In phase 2 clinical trials, the combination demonstrated a 44% reduction in the risk of skin cancer recurrence or death in patients with stage III or IV melanoma after three years, compared to those who only received Keytruda.
Melanoma affects around 132,000 people a year around the world and is the biggest cause of skin cancer. Currently, surgery is the main treatment, although radiotherapy, medications and chemotherapy are sometimes also used.
Pancreatic cancer vaccine
Recently, human tests released at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), in the United States, showed that the vaccine made with mRNA can “teach” the immune system to recognize and attack one of the most lethal cancers in the world.
Among the 16 patients who participated in the phase I clinical trial, conducted at the Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center, in New York, eight presented an immune response capable of preventing the cancer from progressing for up to 3 years (18 months). In the remaining patients, the disease returned (recurred) after 13 months.
How does the vaccine act in the body?
The vaccine uses mRNA technology, or messenger RNA, and is produced by BioNtech, a company that created an immunizer against Covid-19 with the same technique. Messenger RNA is a molecule that carries the genetic information necessary to synthesize specific proteins. The researchers identified molecules on the tumor surface of patients and developed antigens from them. This can also be done with the surface of viruses (as in the case of the coronavirus that causes the pandemic) and bacteria.
In the case of the American study, the vaccines were made individually, using information about the mutations that generated each patient’s pancreatic tumor, to generate a neoantigen, a substance recognized by the adaptive immune system. With this, the body’s defense cells were able to develop a targeted and personalized immune response so that the antibodies recognized and attacked the foreign body (tumor) produced by the cancer.
In other words, the immune system itself was taught to recognize and eliminate the tumor.
In releasing the study, the researchers pointed out that the technology used by the vaccine was able to “overcome a fundamental barrier for vaccines” against cancer, which is generating functional T cells – a type of immune system cell capable of producing antibodies to destroy cancer cells.
“mRNA may therefore fulfill a fundamental requirement for effective cancer vaccines,” the researchers wrote.
