Moderna and Merck pharmaceutical companies announced that their personalized cancer vaccine in a late-stage trial involving more than a thousand patients with melanoma reduced the risk of the cancer returning and spreading; an achievement that, according to experts, could pave the way for treating other types of cancer as well.

This vaccine, based on mRNA technology, is designed according to each patient’s tumor characteristics and is administered together with the immunotherapy drug “Keytruda.” The companies said that adding the vaccine to the treatment did not create any new side effect, and the reactions observed were mostly similar to those seen with influenza or COVID-19 vaccines.

Five-year data from a previous study shows that combining this vaccine with Keytruda reduced the risk of melanoma recurrence by 50% and the risk of spread by 59%. However, the researchers emphasized that more long-term data is needed to evaluate the effect of this approach on patients’ overall survival.

Moderna and Merck are currently continuing to test this technology for lung, bladder, kidney, stomach, and pancreatic cancers as well.