Scientists study cancer vaccines for multiple cancers, announce one ready for melanoma

A first-of-its-kind experimental vaccine for melanoma has ushered in new hope for cancer patients.

Scientists are also studying cancer vaccines for brain cancer, pancreatic cancer and more, a story by Nina Agrawal in yesterday's editions of The New York Times is headlined.

How Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, who is notoriously anti-vaccine, feels about the breakthrough has not been revealed.

The article indicates that Merck and Moderna, the two drug manufacturers who developed the new vaccine, have "announced that patients with melanoma who received a vaccine tailored to help their immune systems attack their tumors were 42 percent less likely to experience a recurrence of the cancer within two years than those who did not receive the vaccine."

Dr. Robert Vonderheide

The Times piece quotes Dr. Robert Vonderheide, president-elect of the American Association for Cancer Research and director of the Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, as saying, "This is the first step…Do we have as lot to learn. For sure."

The two companies, the story continues, "delivered their vaccine in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda). The medication is part of a relatively new class of drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors, which take the brakes off important immune cells so they can attack cancer cells once they recognize them."

More information on clinical trials can be found in the second edition of Rollercoaster: How a caregiver can survive his partner’s breast cancer or any other lethal disease, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, recently finished rewriting. My other books are MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of my newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that I co-authored with my then 8-year-old granddaughter. Check out my website at https://woodyweingarten.com for details.