I’m sure many of you have heard the news reports today about the first personalised melanoma vaccine

Today’s announcement about the melanoma cancer vaccine moving to Phase 3 clinical trials means the vaccine will now be tested in a larger number of patients with melanoma post-surgery, to ensure it is an effective treatment for this type of cancer. 

If the trial is successful, the same technology could be potentially used to target other cancers in combination with existing treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy. 

The science that helped bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control is continuing to show promise in treating other diseases. But it’s not just Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine technology being repurposed: Cancer Research UK and the CRIS Cancer Foundation recently announced up to £1.7million funding to investigate whether Oxford-AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine platform can be used to make LungVax, the world’s first vaccine to prevent lung cancer

As there are over 200 types of cancer, vaccines are unlikely to be a solution to beating all cancer types but Cancer vaccines progressing through clinical trials are exciting news. These breakthroughs should give us much cause to be optimistic.

You can find out more about clinical trials on our Clinical Trials Database.