Cancer Vaccine For Melanoma Touted As Having “Gamechanging” Potential

(PatriotPostNews.com) – An mRNA vaccine has entered its human trial stage in a historic first that professionals believe could lead to the permanent cure of cancer.

The treatment, which is the first ever personalized mRNA vaccine for the dangerous skin cancer melanoma, has been described as “game changing.” Roughly 132,000 people are diagnosed with the disease every year, which is the most life-threatening form of skin cancer. The new treatment involves customizing the injections for individual patients, allowing the treatment to dissolve cancer cells on a personalized basis.

Phase 2 of the trials saw a significant decrease in the rate of returning cancer among patients with melanoma. The shots have now entered phase 3, spearheaded by the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH).

According to the trial’s national coordinating investigator, Dr. Heather Shaw, the shots show promise in effectively curing melanoma and are being tested for other cancers, such as those that affect the lungs, kidneys, and bladder. She described the trial as high on the list of the “most exciting” treatment developments in “a really long time.”

The treatment is a form of neoantigen therapy that is supposed to assist a patient’s immune system to defend against that person’s specific cancer. It is designed to seek out tumor neoantigens that present as tumors and can be identified by the body’s immune system.

34 neoantigens are included in the code of the vaccine, enabling the activation of an attack on the tumors in line with a given patient’s specific disease. The personalization process occurs when a tumor sample is taken from a patient during surgery, at which time DNA sequencing and artificial intelligence (AI) are used to customize a vaccine to defeat the patient’s unique tumor.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) is a cellular molecule that transports DNA from the nucleus to enable protein creation. Despite its controversial use in COVID-19 vaccines, experts have experimented for the past 10 years with the possibility of using mRNA to treat cancer. Early testing that predates the historic melanoma trial has already shown promising results.