The hope is for "a completely new treatment paradigm in cancer that will be better tolerated and unique to individual patients' tumors," said Dr. Jane Healy, an executive overseeing in early cancer treatment development at Merck.
The Merck/Moderna collaboration is one of several combining powerful drugs that unleash the immune system to target cancers with mRNA vaccine technology.
Aiming at these unique proteins allows the immune system to kill cancer cells while leaving healthy tissue unscathed.
With standard treatment, 90% of pancreatic cancer patients die within five years of diagnosis.
The approach first primes the immune system with an older technology called a chimpanzee adenovirus vaccine that targets patients' tumors.
Persons:
Andrew Kelly, Keytruda, Jane Healy, Germany's BioNTech, Vinod Balachandran, we've, we're, Andrew Allen, Healy, Julie Steenhuysen, Caroline Humer, Bill Berkrot
Organizations:
Merck & Co, REUTERS, CHICAGO, Moderna Inc, American Society of Clinical Oncology, Merck, Moderna, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Thomson
Locations:
Kenilworth , New Jersey, U.S, Chicago, New York, Nature