Ignacio Melero
Professor of Immunology at the University of Navarra, CIMA researcher and co-director of the Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra.
It is a clinical trial whose logistics are, in themselves, a feat. Not just because it was conducted entirely during the pandemic and while BioNtech was focusing on its SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, but because it is a marvel of the technology that BioNtech and Roche are able to perform, identifying antigens and producing an mRNA vaccine in just six weeks. It involves a limited number of patients, but the evidence that neoantigen mRNA vaccines work is very strong in this trial after surgery.
This trial has led to another phase 2 trial, already underway and involving several Spanish centres, including ours.
It coincides with the presentation at the AACR congress of data from a trial of personalised Moderna vaccines in combination with anti-PD1 for advanced melanoma with positive results.
Personalised mRNA vaccines combined with immunomodulation are clear candidates to dominate oncology treatments, especially when applied around surgery with curative intent.