How Personalized Cancer Vaccines Could Keep Tumours from Coming Back

June 13, 2024

(Nature) – Angela Evatt lay face down under anaesthesia as surgeons removed a malignant mole from her back and a lymph node from her left armpit. The purpose of the operation was not only to excise the cancerous tissue from her body, but also to begin the process of crafting a personalized vaccine that would train Evatt’s immune system to attack any tumour cells left behind.

The vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA), carefully constructed to encode the unique mutant proteins, known as neoantigens, that are found on the surface of Evatt’s melanoma skin cancer cells. She first received this bespoke vaccine, alongside a potent immune-stimulating drug known as a checkpoint inhibitor, as part of a clinical trial in March 2020, just months before mRNA vaccines would become household names in the fight against COVID-19. (Read More)