Personalised melanoma vaccines prolong survival in largest trial yet
Source: New Scientist, December 2022
People who received a personalised melanoma skin cancer vaccine on top of a standard treatment were less likely to die over the study period than those who had the standard treatment alone.
Custom-made cancer vaccines that prime an individual’s immune system to attack the unique biology of their tumour have halted the progression of melanoma skin cancer in almost half the people taking part in a randomised clinical trial.
We may typically think of vaccines as being used to prevent infections, but there is growing interest in using them to treat medical conditions, particularly cancer. The idea of a vaccine is to help the immune system battle a foreign agent, be it a virus or cancer cell.