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In a world-first international trial, adding intismeran, a type of personalized therapeutic cancer vaccine made from each patient's own tumor, to pembrolizumab immunotherapy after surgery for high-risk melanoma reduced the risk of recurrence or death by 42%.
Professor Georgina Long AO, medical director at Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA) and chair of melanoma medical oncology and translational research at The University of Sydney, presented the results of the Phase III INTerpath-001 clinical trial at the ESMO (European Society for Medical Oncology) Congress 2026.
"These findings are a foundational shift in our approach to cancer: harnessing the immune system in a more personalized way to reduce the risk of melanoma recurrence or death. This has not been achieved before in the history of cancer drug development. It is the coming together of technology, our biological understanding of cancer and the immune system, and the courage to take this idea into the clinic," said Long
This clinical trial included 1,137 patients whose melanoma had been surgically removed, but who were at very high risk of it returning (stage IIB to IV). These patients had not previously received any cancer drug treatment. The trial compared treatment with a type of personalized therapeutic cancer vaccine, intismeran, given with pembrolizumab immunotherapy versus treatment with pembrolizumab alone.
Unlike a traditional vaccine that prevents disease in healthy people, intismeran is a therapeutic vaccine, designed for people after a cancer diagnosis who are at high risk of the cancer returning after surgery.
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