It’s been 20 years since Australian researchers created the world’s first vaccine developed specifically to prevent cancer.
Thanks to the HPV vaccine, Australia is on track to become one of the first countries in the world to eliminate cervical cancer.
Now, research by scientists in Australia has made another breakthrough – this time against skin cancer.
The first personalized mRNA cancer vaccine has now successfully completed a phase 3 clinical trial, reducing the risk of melanoma recurrence or resulting in death by 42 percent compared to standard immunotherapy alone.
The results are even better than scientists expected.
Global lead researcher, medical oncologist Georgina Long from Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA), presented the findings at the 2026 European Society of Medical Oncology Congress.
They should be published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“These results represent a fundamental shift in our approach to cancer: harnessing the immune system in a more personalized way to reduce the risk of melanoma recurrence or death,” says Long.
“This has never been achieved before in the history of cancer drug development.”
Medical oncologist Robert Vonderheide, president-elect of the American Association for Cancer Research, who was not involved in the trial, said: The New York Times the results of the trial live up to “our greatest advances”.
The mRNA vaccine was developed by Moderna and Merck and is designed to prevent melanoma from recurring after surgery.
First, researchers sequence each patient’s tumor, then determine what separates that tumor’s “fingerprint” from other healthy cells in the body.
A vaccine based on this information essentially creates a personalized cancer “research poster” for the patient’s immune system.
“This is delivered as mRNA, so the body’s own cells put up the poster to the immune system, showing it exactly what to watch out for and attack,” Long explains.
The drug works in conjunction with an existing immunotherapy called Keytruda (pembrolizumab).
“Cancer can fool the immune system with a fake friendly handshake, so the immune system thinks the cancer cell is normal,” Long says.
“Pembrolizumab blocks handshake, allowing immune cells to recognize the cancer and attack it, but it’s the same drug for everyone.”
Personalization of a treatment to be used in addition to pembrolizumab appears to improve outcomes.
The phase 3 clinical trial involved more than 1,100 patients across 157 sites around the world, and the results confirm the impressive findings of a phase 2 trial, published in 2024.
For patients who were cancer-free six months after starting treatment, the reduction in risk of melanoma recurrence or death was 58 percent compared to pembrolizumab alone.
The mRNA vaccine is not yet available to patients in Australia or the United States, but the results have entered a regulatory review process.
This could take several years, depending on the country.
))>
In Australia, where the rate of melanoma is one of the highest in the world, one person dies from this cancer every 6 hours.
A vaccine that could prevent cancer from recurring could save many lives.
And it’s not just skin cancer that could benefit from mRNA technology.
“Having succeeded in melanoma, this proof of concept could mark the start of a fundamental change in how we treat cancer, helping patients stay cancer-free longer,” says Long.
Alex Menzies, medical oncologist at MIA, agrees.
“The hope for the near future is that this may not only improve outcomes for melanoma patients with advanced disease, but also for those with other types of cancer for which current immunotherapies are poorly effective,” says Menzies.
It’s an exciting idea, but there’s still work to be done.
Recently, several randomized trials testing mRNA vaccines for colorectal cancer and head and neck cancer have failed to reduce recurrences.
This makes these new results even more important.
“The INTerpath-001 trial shows that a treatment built from the unique signature of a patient’s own tumor, combined with checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy, can sharpen the immune system to detect and destroy any remaining cancer cells,” says Long.
“Just as email has transformed the way we communicate, individualized neoantigen therapy has the potential to transform the way we treat cancer.”
This article was fact-checked by Rebecca Dyer and edited by Rebecca Dyer. Although we are proud of our process, we are only human. If you spot an error, please let us know.
Gn bussni
