Personalized melanoma vaccine shows promise in Moffitt clinical trial

TAMPA, Fla. - A new approach to treating melanoma is giving doctors at Moffitt Cancer Center hope that more patients could avoid seeing the potentially deadly skin cancer return.

Moffitt is participating in a Phase 3 clinical trial testing a personalized mRNA vaccine designed specifically for each patient's cancer.

Unlike traditional vaccines, which are generally designed to protect people against the same infectious diseases, this treatment is a form of immunotherapy created using the unique characteristics of a patient's tumor.

Moffitt melanoma trial

What we know:

According to doctors at Moffitt, the process begins after a patient undergoes surgery to remove melanoma. Doctors analyze a piece of the tumor to identify mutations unique to that patient's cancer. That information is then used to create an individualized mRNA vaccine.

The vaccine is designed to train the patient's immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells that may remain hidden in the body after surgery.

Those residual cells can eventually lead to melanoma returning or spreading to other parts of the body.

Dr. Ahmad Tarhini, a professor and senior member at Moffitt Cancer Center and the site's principal investigator for the study, compared the process to training a bloodhound to recognize a specific scent.

"You're training the immune system cells to recognize the unique features of the patient's own cancer and then mount an attack against the cancer," Tarhini said, emphasizing treatment is individualized. "No two patients will have the same mRNA cancer therapy. It's unique to that patient's own cancer."

More than 1,100 patients participated in the Phase 3 clinical trial.

Researchers say the results are especially promising because patients receiving the personalized treatment saw their risk of melanoma recurrence cut in half after five years.

The treatment also appears to provide additional protection against melanoma returning or spreading elsewhere in the body.

Expanded mRNA research

What's next:

Researchers are now studying the treatment in several other cancers, including lung, bladder, kidney, stomach and pancreatic cancers.

Those studies are in different phases of development.

Tarhini said the positive Phase 3 melanoma results have increased researchers' optimism that personalized mRNA cancer treatments could eventually become a new treatment option for many patients.

"There are ongoing studies in lung cancer, in bladder cancer, kidney cancer, in stomach cancer, and pancreatic cancer," Tarhini said. "These are in different phases of development."

Doctors are also encouraged by the potential for fewer systemic side effects compared with some previous immunotherapies. Traditional immune therapies can sometimes cause the immune system to attack healthy parts of the body, leading to toxicity concerns.

Researchers say the personalized approach could reduce that risk because the treatment is designed to direct the immune system toward specific characteristics of the patient's cancer cells.

The treatment still needs approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before it can become broadly available.

Doctors are hopeful that approval could come in the near future, potentially as early as next year.