New Vaccine-Based Treatment Shows Promise in Preventing Melanoma Recurrence
By Chloe · Published 24 Oct 2026 · Updated 24 Oct 2026
National, ACT
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New Vaccine-Based Treatment Shows Promise in Preventing Melanoma Recurrence - National, ACT
Smart summary
Australian medical research is highlighting a promising vaccine-based approach designed to reduce the risk of melanoma returning after treatment. The findings could help shape future care for people at high risk of th...
A world-first cancer vaccine has been shown to radically reduce the risk of melanoma recurrence and death.
The results from an Australian-led phase 3 human trial revealed a 42 per cent reduction in the risk of melanoma recurrence.
Melanoma Institute Australia medical director and principal investigator Georgina Long said the results were better than she had hoped.
"We did not expect it to be that high. We knew it would be important and significant, but this is phenomenal," she said.
"This breakthrough is absolutely transformational. It's a foundational shift in the way we use the immune system to target and kill cancer."
The treatment works by adding intismeran, a type of personalised m RNA-based vaccine made with genetic information from a patient's tumour, to pembrolizumab immunotherapy after the surgical removal of melanoma.
"Adding the two drugs together rather than one improves or decreases their risk of recurrence or death by 42 per cent," Professor Long said.
"This was aimed at melanoma patients who are at a very high risk of the melanoma coming back as advanced melanoma. That used to be deadly."
She said the vaccine was developed by taking a biopsy of the patient's tumour and comparing its cells to the patient's healthy cells to see what was different.
"There's a list of things that are very different, that are unique to the patient's tumour. They're not shared with anyone else's tumour," Professor Long said.
"We rank them, and the top 34 differences we can then encode and that's called the fingerprint."
The m RNA platform is used to code that fingerprint, or neoantigen, which is injected into the patient and establishes a target for the immune system.
"It's like a wanted poster that gets printed into the body so … the immune cells can see," Professor Long said.
The trial involved 1,137 patients whose melanoma had been surgically removed and compared the combined treatment with with patients receiving only immunotherapy treatment.
It was conducted across 157 sites globally and involved a number of Australian sites, including Melanoma Institute Australia, Peter Mac Callum Cancer Centre and Paul Fox Melanoma and Cancer Centre in Victoria, Westmead Hospital in NSW, Princess Alexandra Hospital in Queensland and One Clinical Research in Western Australia.
MelanomaPatientCancerLongRecurrence
A world-first cancer vaccine has been shown to radically reduce the risk of melanoma recurrence and death.
The results from an Australian-led phase 3 human trial revealed a 42 per cent reduction in the risk of melanoma recurrence.
Melanoma Institute Australia medical director and principal investigator Georgina Long said the results were better than she had hoped.
"We did not expect it to be that high. We knew it would be important and significant, but this is phenomenal," she said.
"This breakthrough is absolutely transformational. It's a foundational shift in the way we use the immune system to target and kill cancer."
The treatment works by adding intismeran, a type of personalised m RNA-based vaccine made with genetic information from a patient's tumour, to pembrolizumab immunotherapy after the surgical removal of melanoma.
"Adding the two drugs together rather than one improves or decreases their risk of recurrence or death by 42 per cent," Professor Long said.
"This was aimed at melanoma patients who are at a very high risk of the melanoma coming back as advanced melanoma. That used to be deadly."
She said the vaccine was developed by taking a biopsy of the patient's tumour and comparing its cells to the patient's healthy cells to see what was different.
"There's a list of things that are very different, that are unique to the patient's tumour. They're not shared with anyone else's tumour," Professor Long said.
"We rank them, and the top 34 differences we can then encode and that's called the fingerprint."
The m RNA platform is used to code that fingerprint, or neoantigen, which is injected into the patient and establishes a target for the immune system.
"It's like a wanted poster that gets printed into the body so … the immune cells can see," Professor Long said.
The trial involved 1,137 patients whose melanoma had been surgically removed and compared the combined treatment with with patients receiving only immunotherapy treatment.
It was conducted across 157 sites globally and involved a number of Australian sites, including Melanoma Institute Australia, Peter Mac Callum Cancer Centre and Paul Fox Melanoma and Cancer Centre in Victoria, Westmead Hospital in NSW, Princess Alexandra Hospital in Queensland and One Clinical Research in Western Australia.
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