Moderna and Merck on Tuesday announced promising results in their preliminary (Phase 2b) studies of their skin cancer therapy. Using a Moderna mRNA vaccine (the method used to rapidly develop coronavirus vaccines) combined with Merck’s drug Keytrude offers better results than giving the drug alone, both companies said. According to the companies, the risk of recurrence or death is reduced by 44%.
This is an early stage study, which has not been published in scientific journals or reviewed by independent experts, and it is too early to draw any conclusions, but these results indicate a further step towards the goal of use the messenger RNA method to treat multiple diseases. The companies plan to discuss the results with regulatory authorities and launch a phase 3 study in patients with melanoma in 2023. This study will allow to validate or not the effectiveness of the therapy.
The function of RNA it is to transmit the message of life contained in the DNA and convert it into all the proteins that allow us to develop vital functions. The coronavirus messenger RNA vaccines use the body’s cells as bioreactors to make copies of the coronavirus S protein, and these are localized by the immune system. Moderna is using your platform mRNA technology to develop drugs that can treat and prevent infectious diseases such as influenza and HIV, as well as autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases and rare forms of cancer, although so far without conclusive results in the case of cancer.
From cancer to cancer
The technique used in this study, which elicits an immune response through messenger RNA, is the one that was later used to develop vaccines against covid. Already in 2017, a team led by Ugur Sahin, founder of Biontech, the company behind Pfizer’s vaccine, created vaccines that targeted up to ten mutations in 13 melanoma patients. Several of them had improvements in their disease, but one of them, who, as in the work announced today, combined the vaccine with anti-PD1 therapy, saw the tumor disappear.
Customized cancer vaccines are designed to prime the immune system so that the patient can generate a tailored anti-tumor response specific to their type of tumor mutation.
“Today’s findings are very encouraging for the field of cancer treatment. mRNA has been instrumental in COVID-19 and now, for the first time, we have demonstrated the potential of mRNA to influence the results of a randomized clinical trial in melanoma.” said Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, in a statement. “We will initiate further studies in melanoma and other forms of cancer with the aim of offering patients truly personalized cancer treatments. We look forward to publishing the complete dataset and sharing the findings at an upcoming oncology medical congress, as well as with health authorities.”
“These positive results represent an important milestone in our collaboration with Moderna,” Dr. Dean Y. Li, president of Merck Research Laboratories, pointed out. “Over the past six years, our teams have collaborated closely, pooling our respective expertise in mRNA and immuno-oncology with the goal of improving outcomes for cancer patients. We look forward to moving this program into the next stage of development.”
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