The personalized vaccine that could revolutionize cancer treatment

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:17)
WBUR podcasts, Boston.

**Xavier Martinez** (0:26)
Researchers are cautiously optimistic that this will represent a big breakthrough on how we treat cancers.

**Kalyani Saxena** (0:34)
There's promising news about an mRNA vaccine that could treat melanoma.
It's Wednesday, August 19th, and this is Here & Now Anytime from NPR and WBUR Boston. I'm Kalyani Saxena. Today on the show, activist David Hogg has been working to get progressives elected. He shares his take on how Democrats are doing ahead of midterms.

**David Hogg** (1:08)
I want young people to look at our party and see somebody like Mayor Mondani and say, you know what, at least there is somebody there that properly represents me, that has paid rent this century and is not controlled by the special interests that make trillions of dollars off of stopping progress.

**Kalyani Saxena** (1:21)
Also, as wildfires burn around the world this summer, we hear from a survivor of last year's Eaton fire in California, about what life looks like now.

**Nikki High** (1:32)
There is just something about a community experiencing a tragedy of this magnitude together that eliminates the differences between you.

**Kalyani Saxena** (1:42)
But first, we've got some exciting news about an mRNA vaccine that could potentially slow the spread of melanoma and prevent recurrence of the cancer. Here's what we know at this point. A trial of more than a thousand people with high-risk melanoma saw dramatic outcomes after they were treated with a personalized mRNA vaccine. That's the same technology that led to the creation of the COVID vaccine.
The findings could have massive implications for the treatment of other cancers. It's worth noting here that this news comes after the Trump administration has pulled back from scientific research and cast out on mRNA vaccines. Indira Lakshmanan spoke with Wall Street Journal reporter Xavier Martinez about the vaccine.

**Indira Lakshmanan** (2:32)
So this is a very new therapy. It's a vaccine derived from specific cancer cells in individual patients' bodies. How does it work?

**Xavier Martinez** (2:41)
Exactly. I think when you hear that cancer vaccine, you think of a flu shot or something like this, but this is kind of different. It's made for a specific cancer patient after they're diagnosed. And so the process works like this. A patient has surgery to remove their tumor. Doctors biopsy that tumor and sequence its DNA to find the specific mutations that are driving that person's cancer.
And then scientists build a vaccine using mRNA that trains the immune system to recognize those exact mutations. It takes about six weeks to manufacture and it's literally a one-person batch unique to that patient's tumor.

**Indira Lakshmanan** (3:18)
Wow, this sounds like exactly the kind of personalized medicine we've been hearing is on the horizon. Is this the first breakthrough in that realm?

**Xavier Martinez** (3:26)
You know, this is just about as personalized as medicine gets right now. There are other types of cell therapies that use similar sort of methodologies, but, you know, this is not a drug sitting on a shelf that gets given to everyone in the same way. Every dose is built for one specific patient based on their unique genetic mutations in their own tumor.

**Indira Lakshmanan** (3:46)
Well, that sounds expensive to individually sequence a cancer genome. How much is this going to cost for patients?

**Xavier Martinez** (3:53)
Absolutely. That's one of the biggest questions on Wall Street's mind right now.
We're still waiting to see the exact numerical results of this study. We know that they met their main goals, but we're not sure by how much. I think people are expecting the price will be relatively high. It is manufactured here in the US., in Massachusetts, in Moderna's facility. And so distribution wouldn't be across the world, but it could be quite expensive.

**Indira Lakshmanan** (4:16)
Well, Xavier, let me ask you, mRNA vaccines are very controversial with the Make America Healthy Again movement, many of whom make up President Trump's base. Moderna isn't even calling this cancer therapy a vaccine, though it uses the same technology. Why not?

**Xavier Martinez** (4:33)
Absolutely. I think one key distinction, and I referenced this earlier, is just the fact that it's not given as a preventative measure, like a flu shot or something like that. I mean, this is used as a quote unquote, therapeutic to address people with cancer. But in calls with researchers and with clinicians, that topic does come up a lot, right? How do you message this when there is so much skepticism about vaccines and specifically about mRNA? I think that it's a question on everyone's mind. How do you talk about it? How do you explain it to the public? Because there are some differences, although there are some similarities.