Personalized Cancer Vaccines: What Challenges Remain?

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/personalized-cancer-vaccines-what-challenges-remain-2026a1001025?ecd=WNL_trdalrt_pos1_ous_260929_etid8741825&uac=148436CN&impID=8741825 Personalized cancer vaccines are generating renewed interest as new clinical data emerge for melanoma and head and neck cancers. These vaccines target neoantigens selected from mutations specific to each patient’s tumor. In melanoma, Moderna’s messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine intismeran, combined with pembrolizumab, met the primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival and a key secondary endpoint of distant metastasis-free survival in a phase 3 trial. In head and neck cancer, the personalized vaccine TG4050 induced durable immune responses in a phase 1 trial, although its efficacy still needs to be confirmed.