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Moderna‘s experimental cancer vaccine, used in combination with Merck‘s Keytruda, reduced the risk of the most deadly form of skin cancer spreading to other parts of the body in a clinical trial, according to the midstage process results published Monday.
Moderna’s cancer vaccine reduced the risk of melanoma spreading to other parts of the body or death by 65% in patients with stage three or four of the disease compared to patients who received Merck’s immunotherapy treatment alone, the study found.
Moderna and Merck will present the data at the annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago at 5 p.m. ET.
The clinical trial enrolled 157 patients who had their cancer surgically removed.
Patients in the treatment group receive 1 mg injections of Moderna’s vaccine every three weeks for nine total doses and intravenous infusions of 200 mg Keytruda every three weeks for approximately one year.
According to the American Cancer Society, melanoma is responsible for the vast majority of skin cancer deaths. The number of melanomas has increased rapidly in recent decades, according to the association.
This year in the U.S., about 100,000 people will be diagnosed with melanoma and nearly 8,000 people are expected to die from the disease, the association said.
The data published Monday is the latest promising results from Moderna and Merck.
The companies published data in April showing that Moderna’s cancer vaccine in combination with Keytruda reduced the risk of recurrent melanoma by 44% compared to patients who received Merck’s immunotherapy treatment alone.
The Food and Drug Administration gave Moderna and Merck a breakthrough therapy designation in February, which is intended to accelerate the development and assessment of treatments for serious and life-threatening diseases.