Penn helped test a promising mRNA melanoma vaccine. Here’s what the trial means for the field.
In August, the drug companies Merck and Moderna announced a successful late-stage trial for a personalized mRNA vaccine designed to help prevent the return and spread of melanoma. “It’s the deadliest form of skin cancer because it can metastasize,” said Ravi K. Amaravadi, MD, a professor of Hematology-Oncology, scientific director of the Tara Miller Melanoma Center, and the site lead for the study at the Abramson Cancer Center. “We are now able to train the immune system to look for the tumor, arguably for the first time, in the most effective way,” he said. Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research and a pioneer of mRNA research, who was not involved in the study, said, “This was kind of the wake-up call that RNA vaccines in cancer have an enormous future.” The story also featured study participant Denise Fitzsimmons.