The technology that enabled the world's fastest vaccine development during the COVID-19 pandemic is now delivering what may be oncology's most consequential breakthrough: personalised cancer vaccines that can be manufactured in weeks and tailored to an individual patient's unique tumour profile.
Phase 3 clinical trial results published in the New England Journal of Medicine show that personalised mRNA vaccines, when combined with standard immunotherapy, reduce cancer recurrence by 78% in patients with melanoma — and preliminary results across colorectal and pancreatic cancers are comparably promising.
How They Work
Unlike conventional cancer treatments that target cancer broadly, personalised mRNA vaccines are designed around the specific genetic mutations in each patient's tumour. Genomic sequencing of the tumour identifies neoantigens — proteins expressed only by cancer cells — and the vaccine instructs the patient's immune system to recognise and destroy cells displaying those specific markers.
The manufacturing process, once taking months, has been compressed to under six weeks through AI-assisted neoantigen identification and automated mRNA synthesis platforms.