Moderna-Merck Phase 3 puts neoantigen vaccine approval in sight

Nine Patients Received a Personalized Kidney Cancer Vaccine. None Had a Recurrence. - ScienceAlert

In a small adjuvant trial in clear cell renal cell carcinoma, nine patients received a personalized neoantigen vaccine after surgery and none experienced a recurrence over a median follow-up of roughly three years and four months. All nine developed immune responses to the vaccine, and in seven, vaccine-reactive T cells also recognized the patient's own tumor — the mechanistic readout that matters beyond the recurrence count. Investigators David Braun (Yale) and Toni Choueiri (Dana-Farber/Harvard) are explicit that the sample is too limited to prove vaccination prevented recurrence. The investable signal here is immunogenicity plus tumor recognition in a fully resected population, not an efficacy claim.