'Breakthrough' mRNA cancer drug curbs melanoma in large trial

BREAKING: Merck and Moderna say their personalised mRNA cancer treatment significantly reduced melanoma recurrence in a late-stage trial, hailed by experts as a 'breakthrough'.

An mRNA vaccine just worked against cancer. In a proper, late-stage trial.

Merck and Moderna say their personalised treatment significantly cut the chances of melanoma coming back after surgery, and experts aren't being shy about it, they're calling it a breakthrough. Researchers have chased this idea for years, using the same technology that built the Covid shots to teach your immune system to hunt tumour cells. Plenty of promising starts, plenty of dead ends. This is the first time it's delivered in a big phase three trial.

And personalised is the word doing the work here. Each dose is custom built from the mutations in one patient's own tumour. A drug with a batch size of one.

Regulators come next, and that's where speed matters. Because the hardest fact tonight is also the best one. For the first time, mRNA has beaten cancer in the trial that counts.

This is Dave King, reporting for HIT.