REVOLUTIONARY JAB OFFERS

A "GAME-CHANGING" cancer vaccine that is being tested on British patients offers hope of a cure for the disease.

- Hanna Geissler

The world-first personalised jab for melanoma may also prove effective in treating lung, bladder and kidney tumours.

Using the technology that helped overcome the Covid pandemic, the mRNA jab is custom-built in a matter of weeks and given after surgery to stop the disease returning.

It works by "telling" the body to hunt down cancer cells - and experts said it is the latest promising weapon in "a golden age of cancer research".

Dr Heather Shaw, the study's national coordinating investigator, said the vaccine had the potential to cure people with skin cancer.

She added: "This is one of the most exciting things we've seen in a really long time. This, is a really finely honed tool. These things are hugely technical and finely generated for the patient.

"The patients are really excited about them."

Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in the UK. There are more than 16,000 cases diagnosed every year and it claims around 2,300 lives annually.

The jab-known as mRNA-4157 (V940) uses messenger RNA genetic material to guide some of the body's cells to make harmless versions of markers that appear on the cancer cells, stimulating an immune response.

This should help the immune system recognise and fight the disease in future.

It carries coding for up to 34 tumour markers based on the unique mutations in a patient's cancer, following DNA analysis of a sample removed during surgery.

Dr Shaw continued: "It is absolutely custom-built for the patients.

"You couldn't give this to the next patient in the line because you wouldn't expect it to work.

"They're likely to have their own very individual new antigens that are important to their tumour."

Maximum