Precision Medicine Week: Cancer Vaccines, Gene Therapies, and Robotic Surgery Break New Ground

A personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine from Moderna and Merck has delivered a "landmark moment" in Phase 3 trials, reducing the risk of cancer recurrence or death by 49% and the risk of distant metastasis by 59% compared to standard immunotherapy alone. The vaccine, intismeran, is custom-built for each patient, encoding up to 34 unique neoantigens—the mutation-specific "fingerprints" of their tumor—to train the immune system to hunt down residual cancer cells...