Reported by BBC Health
Tony Chapman, 75, from Corby in the East Midlands was one of the 1,100 melanoma patients enrolled on the vaccine trial
A new personalised cancer vaccine given alongside a widely used immunotherapy drug has cut the risk of patients dying or their skin cancer returning by 42% in a major clinical trial.
The researchers involved say the results could mark a turning point in cancer treatment, bringing personalised medicine a step closer.
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The trial also found that the new drug combination reduced the risk of melanoma, a type of skin cancer, spreading by 38% over two years compared to immunotherapy alone.
The drug manufacturers MSD and Moderna say the same approach is already being tested against other tumours, including kidney, bladder and lung cancer.
Independent cancer experts described the results as impressive but said longer-term studies were still needed to establish whether the treatment really helps most patients live longer, on average.
The new approach is aimed at cancer patients who have already had their tumour removed through surgery.
In the trial, 1,137 adults were given Keytruda, an established immunotherapy drug which helps the body's immune system find and attack cancer cells.
About two-thirds also received an experimental vaccine with the rest being given a placebo or dummy drug.
The vaccine, called Intismeran, uses the same mRNA technology as some Covid jabs.
It is personalised to each patient, using information from their own tumour to help train their immune system to recognise cancer cells and target them if they return.
Two years after starting the treatment, the patients who received the jab were far less likely to have had melanoma come back or see it spread across the body.
"Personalisation is the next step up and it's really exciting, it's a fabulous technology," says Prof Pippa Corrie, a consultant medical oncologist who helped run part of the study with patients at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.
"The question is how much can we really demonstrate its worth and this trial was the first proof of principle."
The latest checks show that Tony Chapman is cancer free three years after he was…