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The Moderna-Merck mRNA cancer vaccine helps prevent cancer recurrence and death, the new results show
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October 22, 2026
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Here’s what the new Merck-Moderna mRNA cancer vaccine data actually show
The Merck-Moderna mRNA cancer vaccine helps prevent cancer recurrence and death, the new results show
Moderna’s headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.
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Updated at 10:30 AMData from Merck and Moderna’s phase 3 clinical trial for an mRNA-based skin cancer vaccine were leaked and then spread on social media on Thursday, prompting the pharmaceutical companies to release an early look at the results of the trial.
The results, which triggered a drop in Moderna’s stock, are positive, experts say. The findings are “really encouraging,” says Karen Knudsen, CEO of the nonprofit Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. This kind of mRNA cancer vaccine was “fiction” 10 years ago, she says. “It was thought to be very difficult to do.”
As Scientific American previously reported, the Merck-Moderna clinical trial includes two treatments: a personalized mRNA-vaccine called intismeran autogene, which works by instructing the body on how to identify and fight cancer, and pembrolizumab (sold as Keytruda), a drug designed to prevent cancer from “hiding” from our immune system, according to Merck.
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The clinical trial included 1,137 cancer patients with “high-risk” melanoma, a type of skin cancer. Together, after a median period of about two years, the mRNA vaccine and pembrolizumab reduced the risk of cancer recurrence or death by 42 percent in people who used both treatments compared with those on pembrolizumab alone. On top of that, the dual treatment reduced the risks of cancer spreading to other parts of the body and of death by 38 percent over just pembrolizumab, according to Merck and Moderna.
The findings don’t yet include overall survival, Knudsen notes. “Did people who got the vaccine live longer than people who didn’t? And what was their quality of life?” she asks. Those results are coming. But the new findings are “really, really good milestones along the way,” she says.
The “big advance” is that fewer patients will see their cancer return, said Michael Postow, chief of the Melanoma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, who helped run the trial, on a press briefing call on October 23. After melanoma is surgically removed, “taking this type of combination treatment will decrease the number of patients that ever have to deal with their melanoma coming back again in the future, and fewer patients [will] have to deal with additional radiation, surgery, other more complicated treatments in the future.”
On the same press call, Beth Ryzyk, a study participant, said that she’d started treatment for her melanoma in May 2024. The study is still blinded, so she doesn’t know if she received the placebo or the vaccine. But as of the day of the call, she feels "great,” she said.
“From the beginning, we believed mRNA technology could make it possible to develop cancer treatments uniquely matched to each patient’s tumor, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement. “These results reinforce our conviction that mRNA has the potential to fundamentally change how we treat cancer.”
And “mRNA is opening the door to a new kind of cancer treatment that can be tailored to each patient’s unique tumor. To fully realize this potential, we need a modernized regulatory approach that keeps pace with the science," said Alliance for mRNA Medicines executive director Clay Alspach in a separate statement.
“We also need continued federal investment in mRNA innovation," Alspach added. "Past government support for mRNA research—including during Operation Warp Speed—has helped propel the science forward. As the results from this Phase 3 study clearly show, now is not the time to go backward.”
The results have been accepted for publication in the New England Journal of Medicine, Merck and Moderna said. Now the companies are “engaging with regulatory authorities” to seek approval for their mRNA vaccine.
Moderna and Merck did not immediately reply to requests for comment from Scientific American.
Editor’s Note (10/23/26): This is a breaking news story and may be updated.
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