The new approach is aimed at cancer patients who have already had their tumour removed through surgery.
In the trial, 1,137 adults were given Keytruda, an established immunotherapy drug which helps the body’s immune system find and attack cancer cells.
About two-thirds also received an experimental vaccine based on the same mRNA technology used in some Covid jabs, with the rest being given a placebo or dummy drug.
The vaccine, called Intismeran, uses the same mRNA technology as some Covid jabs.
It is personalised to each patient, using information from their own tumour to help train their immune system to recognise cancer cells and target them if they return.
Two years after starting the treatment, the patients who received the jab were far less likely to have had melanoma come back or see it spread across the body.
“Personalisation is the next step up and it’s really exciting, it’s a fabulous technology,” says Prof Pippa Corrie, a consultant medical oncologist who helped run part of the study with patients at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.
“The question is how much can we really demonstrate it’s worth and this trial was the first proof of principle.”
