Giving Cancer Our Best Shot: mRNA Vaccine Trial Shows Promise

Premier Health Now Apr 25, 2023

A scientist studies an mRNA cancer vaccine under a microscope

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Few had heard of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology before 2020. But news quickly spread about this scientific breakthrough when researchers raced to develop a vaccine to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Though it became synonymous with COVID vaccines, this novel technology had been studied for several years with the goal to prevent a completely different disease: cancer.

Researchers recently released the results of a two-year study of a personalized mRNA vaccine. The trial involved 157 patients who had been diagnosed with the deadliest form of skin cancer, melanoma.

Researchers determined that 44 percent of patients who received the experimental mRNA melanoma vaccine were “more likely to be alive and avoid new tumors than those who received only the standard of care.”

Premier Health Now spoke with surgical oncologist James R. Ouellette, DO, to get a better understanding of how this technology works and what it may mean for the future of cancer treatment and prevention.

Programmed Immunity

MRNA technology programs cells to build proteins and create an immune response.

“The mRNA vaccine’s goal is to program a person’s own immune system to attack 34 different neo-antigens on a cancerous tumor,” says Dr. Ouellette. “This study, in particular, looked at people who previously had high-risk forms of melanoma.”

Though the study offers cause for optimism, Dr. Ouellette cautions that more research is needed before patients can routinely use mRNA vaccines to prevent cancer.

“At the moment, we have not seen all of the published data from this latest study, so it will be helpful to see and understand what that true data looks like. It’s going to be important to follow those same patients out for longer to see if this short-term interval equates to long-term survival changes and long-term treatments.”