Cure for Cancer in Sight? Stocks Surge as Personalized Cancer Vaccine Succeeds in Phase 3

[Anchor]

Recently, multinational pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck announced that they have succeeded in Phase 3 clinical trials for a vaccine that prevents cancer recurrence and metastasis. With global attention focused on the news, the stock prices of these companies have surged.

What kind of vaccine is this, and how is it different from existing anti-cancer drugs? Let us discuss this with Cho Dong-chan, a guest reporter and special professor at Hanyang University. Reporter Cho, could you first explain the significance of this cancer vaccine? What does this clinical success mean?

[Reporter]

Let me start by explaining the principle. Everyone calls this a hand.

However, fingerprints are different for everyone.

Even for cancers with the same name, the genes vary from person to person.

Yet, the exact same anti-cancer drug has been used.

As a result, it worked for some people, while it did not work for others.

In contrast, this new cancer vaccine extracts the cancer tumor from an individual patient and creates an injection based on it.

This is the fruition of 9 years of work since 2017.

The research team described it as a medicine like a personalized fingerprint.

While personalized anti-cancer drugs tailored to individual patients already exist for certain blood cancers, this technology is the first that can be applied broadly to skin cancer, lung cancer, bladder cancer, and more.

[Anchor]

You explained that it is a personalized vaccine. How does it work specifically?

[Reporter]

Let me explain using an actual clinical trial patient.

He is a 52-year-old man who participated in a clinical trial in the UK. He is a music teacher and had a 4mm-thick malignant melanoma on his skin, which was removed through surgery.

When you compare this patient's tumor with their normal tissue, mutations that occurred exclusively in this patient's cancer will emerge.

Among these, up to 34 mutations that immune cells can easily recognize as targets are selected.

How well these are selected is the core of this technology.

Using these 34 selections as ingredients, an injection was produced using the mRNA technology that was used to make COVID-19 vaccines.

When this injection enters the patient's body, it generates new immune cells against the cancer or activates existing anti-cancer immune cells.

This is how it prevents the recurrence and metastasis of cancer.

[Anchor]

I am curious about how this differs from existing anti-cancer drugs.

What is the difference?

[Reporter]

Cancer cells, troublingly, blindfold immune cells.

That is why conventional immunotherapy was developed.

It takes off the blindfold of immune cells so they can better detect cancer cells.

This new cancer vaccine, on the other hand, creates brand-new immune cells perfectly tailored to an individual's cancer.

Since the mechanisms are different, using both would be ideal.

That is correct; this vaccine clinical trial saw the effects of using both together.

[Anchor]

There must be many patients eagerly awaiting commercialization. Here is the most crucial question.

Does this mean curing cancer is finally becoming possible?

[Reporter]

First of all, Moderna and Merck have not yet released the detailed data from the Phase 3 trials.

Therefore, based on the Phase 2 results announced last June, out of 157 high-risk cutaneous melanoma patients who had completed surgery, 50 were treated with conventional chemotherapy alone, while 107 were treated with a combination of conventional immunotherapy and the new cancer vaccine.

Looking back 5 years later, the proportion of patients who survived without cancer recurrence increased significantly from 49% to 69%.

Given this, commercialization might happen as early as next year.

However, since this vaccine currently focuses on preventing cancer recurrence and metastasis, we will need to monitor further results to see if it can also be used as a primary treatment.

[Anchor]

We will have to see what kind of innovation this brings.

Thank you for the insights.

(Video by Lee So-young, Graphics by Jeon Yu-geun)

Reporter Cho Dong-chan
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.