Topline results from the Phase III INTerpath-001 trial indicate that a personalised mRNA cancer vaccine, intismeran, when used with pembrolizumab, significantly improved recurrence-free survival in patients with surgically removed, high-risk melanoma. The trial, which included 1,137 patients, also met its secondary endpoint of distant metastasis-free survival.
Dr Lennard Lee, a Consultant Medical Oncologist at the University of Oxford, described personalised cancer vaccines as a new approach to treatment. These vaccines are designed for individual patients based on the unique genetic fingerprint of their cancer, aiming to train the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells.
The personalised treatment in this trial encodes up to 34 neoantigens and is administered alongside pembrolizumab, an established immunotherapy. Dr Lee highlighted the significance of these findings, noting it as the first positive Phase III trial for an individualised neoantigen therapy and an mRNA-based cancer treatment.