Signal Personalized vaccine plus pembrolizumab cut recurrence or death risk by 49% in melanoma

Summary

The report cites melanoma as a second clinical case for personalized mRNA vaccines. Here the focus is patients who have had a tumour removed but still face a risk of recurrence from residual disease too small to detect. In a trial spanning several centres in the United States and Europe, high-risk melanoma patients received a personalized vaccine together with pembrolizumab, a widely used immunotherapy. Compared with immunotherapy alone, the combination lowered the risk of recurrence or death by 49%. The report says the result was strong enough to move the combination into phase 3 trials, which are now in progress. The case frames the vaccine as a way to keep the immune system ready rather than to fight an existing tumour.