Cancer vaccine promise as tests show positive results

A cancer vaccine is one step closer to becoming a reality, according to the results of a trial.

- STORM NEWTON

The jab, known as mRNA4359 and developed by Moderna, is currently aimed at people with advanced melanoma, lung cancer and other solid tumour cancers.

It is designed to prime the body to recognise and fight cancer cells has shown it could stimulate the immune system to help treat the disease more effectively, according to the results of an early trial.

For the first in-human study of the treatment, 19 patients with advanced solid tumours were given between one and nine doses of mRNA-4359.

Researchers found tumours did not grow and no new tumours appeared in eight of the 16 patients who were evaluated. They also said the treatment was “well tolerated without serious side effects”.

Researchers described the results as “an important first step” in potentially developing a new treatment for people with advanced cancers.

It uses mRNA technology, similar to Covid-19 vaccines, which teaches the immune system how cancer cells differ to healthy cells and mobilises it to destroy them.