Moderna, Merck Vaccine Combo Cuts Melanoma Recurrence

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Image copyright: AP [via The Wall Street Journal]

The Facts

  • On Tuesday, Moderna and Merck announced their co-developed, personalized skin cancer vaccine — based on individual tumor DNA — significantly reduced skin cancer recurrence in patients with phase three or four melanoma who had tumors removed in surgery.

  • Patients who took a combination of Moderna's mRNA vaccine technology and Merck's already-approved Keytruda immunotherapy saw a 44% reduction in relapse and death compared to those who only took Keytruda.

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The Spin

Narrative A

Cancer vaccine research hasn't been very successful due to cycle times taking too long, which is why this study is such a breakthrough. The use of mRNA technology not only allows a quicker process but a personalized one in which individual patients' tumor DNA can be used to attack specific cancer cell mutations harming their immune systems.

Washington Post

Narrative B

This is all positive news, but we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves over just one headline. While promising, potentially successful cancer vaccines like this face many challenges and are still years away from being rolled out. Further research is needed.

Frontiers