The global Phase III trial tested a treatment individually designed from the genetic mutations found in each patient’s tumor.
Given alongside standard immunotherapy, it improved the time patients remained free of cancer recurrence and distant metastases, researchers announced this month.
The INTerpath-001 study involved 1,137 patients with high-risk stage IIB to IV melanoma whose tumors had been surgically removed. More than 50 were treated at the Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology in Warsaw.
"Polish patients were fortunate because we opened this trial early at the National Research Institute of Oncology," said Prof. Piotr Rutkowski, head of its Department of Soft Tissue/Bone Sarcoma and Melanoma.
"Poland had a substantial influence on the results of this study," he added.
The treatment, called intismeran autogene, is being developed by pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck.
It uses messenger RNA, or mRNA, to teach the immune system to recognize proteins produced by mutations specific to an individual patient’s cancer. It is combined with pembrolizumab, sold as Keytruda, an immunotherapy drug that helps the immune system attack cancer cells.
"Thanks to the mRNA vaccine, we teach the immune system to recognize its own cancer," Rutkowski said.
Merck and Moderna said on August 19 that the Phase III trial had shown statistically significant improvements in both recurrence-free survival and survival without distant metastases compared with pembrolizumab alone.
Detailed figures from the trial have yet to be released.
Earlier Phase IIb results provide an indication of the treatment’s potential. Five-year follow-up data showed the combination reduced the relative risk of distant metastasis or death by 59 percent and the risk of recurrence or death by 49 percent compared with pembrolizumab alone.
Rutkowski said the treatment could become available to patients within 12 to 18 months if it receives regulatory approval.
Previous attempts to develop cancer vaccines have had limited success, but the new approach differs because each treatment is made for a particular patient after analysis of that person’s tumor.
Rutkowski said the technology could eventually be used against cancers other than melanoma. Clinical trials are already testing similar approaches in kidney, lung, bladder and other cancers.
(rt/gs)
Source: naukawpolsce.pl