A breakthrough cancer vaccine is being tested on patients suffering from melanoma and could prevent thousands of deaths a year.
Results will be revealed later this year from the second of three trials by manufacturers Moderna and Merck.
It is a vaccine which is personalised and given for the individual condition of patients that have skin cancer.
The vaccine is based on the same mRNA technology that was used in Covid jabs.
Moderna’s experimental vaccine is being tested in combination with Merck’s blockbuster cancer immunotherapy, Keytruda, in the mid-stage trial.
With the size of the COVID-19 vaccine market expected to contract in subsequent years from the levels seen in 2021, Moderna has been pinning its hopes on its non-COVID vaccines which includes influenza and respiratory syncytial virus shots.
The cancer vaccine is tailored for each patient to generate T-cells, a key part of the body's immune response, based on the specific mutational signature of a tumour.
In 2016, Merck and Moderna entered a strategic partnership to develop a personalised vaccine for treatment of various types of cancer.
Skin cancers normally fall into the categories of melanoma or non-melanoma.
Melanoma is the more serious form with a greater tendency to spread around the body. There are around 16,000 cases diagnosed of melanoma in the UK each year and 2,340 patients die from it annually.
While non-melanoma skin cancers were found in 147,000 cases and around 720 people in the UK averagely die from it.
Moderna became a household name after producing one of the most successful of the Covid vaccines, while Keytruda is Merck's biggest selling drug and has made up 35% of its sales in the latest market data.
