A new treatment strategy for melanoma patients cuts the risk of the skin cancer recurring within five years nearly in half, researchers at New York’s NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center said Monday.
Most recurrences of the deadliest form of skin cancer develop within the first 2-3 years after treatment, but melanoma can recur even over a decade later, according to the AIM at Melanoma Foundation.
The researchers’ regimen could improve patient outcomes.
The key is an experimental vaccine made by the American biotech company Moderna. Patients who took both that vaccine, known as intismeran, and Merck’s cancer drug Keytruda had better results after their tumors were removed.
Of 107 American and Australian patients taking the vaccine, nearly 69 percent remained cancer free after five years, while just 49 percent of patients only on Keytruda saw the same outcome in that timeframe.
“This means that adding intismeran to [Keytruda] reduced the risk for recurrence or death by 49 percent,” NYU Langone said.
The treatment also reduced the risk of cancer spreading elsewhere in the body by 59 percent and there was a more than 20 percent improved survival rate for those taking the vaccine.
Intismeran is an mRNA vaccine, which works by triggering the immune system to target cancer cells, even after the cancer is gone.
The researchers analyzed the patients’ cancer tumors post-surgery, creating a personalized vaccine for each person that triggers their immune system to produce protective T-cells.
The T-cells seek out abnormal proteins produced by cancer cells called neoantigens to better find evasive cancer.
Keytruda helps to make elusive cancer cells more visible to the immune system, too. But while Keytruda is commonly used to treat melanoma, the drugs don’t work for all patients.
Melanoma cells can become resistant to cancer drugs, which is why researchers are working on vaccines, the researchers said.
“Our findings also serve as encouragement to cancer researchers globally that mRNA vaccines like intismeran could work well in combination with immunotherapy for other cancers whose high rates of mutations have proven difficult to target,” Dr. Janice Mehnert, the associate director of clinical research at the cancer center, said.
A Phase 3 trial with 1,000 patients is underway for the new treatment for melanoma and the vaccine is being tested to see if it also works to prevent recurrence of lung and other cancers.
Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the U.S.
An estimated 112,000 new melanoma cases and 8,500 deaths are expected this year, according to the American Cancer Society.
