Personalized mRNA Cancer Vaccine Combined With Pembrolizumab Reduces Risk Of Recurrence, Death From Melanoma In Trial, Companies Say

Reuters (12/14, Erman) reports, “An experimental messenger RNA cancer vaccine developed by Moderna and Merck & Co paired with Merck’s Keytruda [pembrolizumab] cut the chance of recurrence or death from melanoma by half after three years, showing that benefits demonstrated a year ago have held up over time.” According to the companies, “the combination of the personalized cancer vaccine and Merck’s blockbuster immunotherapy cut the risk of recurrence or death of the most deadly skin cancer by 49% compared with Keytruda alone in the midstage trial.” CNN (12/14, Dillinger) also covers the story.