PODCAST:
August 25, 2026 ~ Chris Renwick and Lloyd Jackson check in with Dr. Yusra Shao, medical oncologist at Karmanos Cancer Center, about a new vaccine to prevent melanoma. How does it work, and how soon will this become widely available?
WASHINGTON D.C. ~ Medical companies Moderna and Merck announced last week that a new mRNA-based vaccine for cancer has shown promise in clinical trials, giving hope to high-risk melanoma patients.
The trials found that the experimental and personalized vaccine, called Intismeran, helped prevent the return or spread of cancer in over 1,100 patients part of the trial, alongside receiving Merck’s immunotherapy Keytruda. These patients had melanoma, a form of skin cancer, surgically removed sometime prior to the trial.
The companies will present the trial data at an upcoming medical meeting.
However, the future availability of this vaccine faces uncertainty, with Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. being a longtime skeptic of vaccines, particularly mRNA vaccines.
