After being the best weapon against the Covid-19 pandemic, messenger RNA-based technology could lead to a breakthrough in the fight against tumors in a few years. A Phase II study, which tested an mRNA vaccine from Moderna (currently called mRNA-4157/V940) in combination with the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab in 157 patients with stage 3 or 4 melanoma who had already undergone surgery has been shown to reduce the risk of recurrence by 44% compared to immunotherapy alone.
If confirmed, the results will represent “important news also against all other cancers”, explains Paolo Ascierto, president of the Melanoma Foundation and director of the Melanoma Oncology, Oncological Immunotherapy and Innovative Therapies Unit of the Pascale Institute in Naples.
In fact, explains the expert, unlike the vaccines used against Covid, which are the same for everyone, this “innovative treatment” is based on “personalized therapies”.
In detail, “the tumor is taken, which has been resected, it is processed and through an algorithm 34 mutations present in the tumor of that patient are selected, thus creating a personalized vaccine. Of these 34 mutated proteins, the messenger mRna is made which is injected into the patient. Our immune system is then trained to recognize 34 patient-specific proteins as foreign.”
The principle, explains Ascierto, is “the same for other tumors as well, precisely because we work on personalizing the treatment”. That’s why if the results on melanoma are confirmed, it will be good news for all cancer patients as well.
In the case of melanoma, the oncologist points out, “it must be emphasized that it is a result of further reduction”, which adds to the progress already achieved with immunotherapy, for example “with therapy with pembrolizumab and nivolumab, which has already reduced the risk of recurrence by 50%”.
The Phase III study, which will test the new therapy on a higher number of patients, will start in 2023 and will also evaluate its effects on other types of tumours. It will take a few years to get the final results: “In general, from the moment enrollment begins to the first date, it can take 3 to 5 years”, explains Ascierto.
Finally, the president of the Melanoma Foundation and director of the Melanoma Oncology, Oncological Immunotherapy and Innovative Therapies Unit of the Pascale Institute in Naples underlines that “if the results are confirmed, they will testify once again how fundamental research is”.