My personalised skin cancer jab is the best chance of stopping it for good, says patient

ONE of the first patients to try a game-changing skin cancer jab today said: “This is my best chance at stopping it in its tracks.”

Steve Young, 52, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, is taking part in trials for the world’s first personalised mRNA cancer jab for melanoma, which also has the potential to stop lung, bladder and kidney cancers. The jab, which offers hope of a cure, is custom-built for each person in just a few weeks.

It works by telling the body to hunt down cancer cells and prevent the deadly disease from coming back.

A stage two trial of the jab, involving pharma firms Moderna and MSD, found it dramatically reduced the risk of the cancer returning in melanoma patients. Mr Young, pictured, is among British patients taking part in the final phase three trial, led by University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He said it was a “massive shock” that a “bump on the head” — which he thinks he had for around a decade — turned out to be melanoma. “I literally spent two weeks just thinking ‘this is it’. My dad died of emphysema when he was 57 and I actually thought ‘I’m going to die younger than my dad’.” Mr Young said that when he was told about the trial at UCLH it “triggered my geek radar”.

He added: “As soon as they mentioned this mRNA technology that was being used to potentially fight cancer, I was just like, ‘it sounds fascinating’ and I still feel the same. I’m really, really excited.

This is my best chance at stopping the cancer in its tracks.” Dr Heather Shaw, national co-ordinating investigator for the trial, said the jab had the potential to cure people with melanoma and was being tested on other cancers.

She added: “This is one of the most exciting things we’ve seen in a really long time. This is a really finely-honed tool. To be able to sit there and say to your patients that you’re offering them something that’s effectively like the Fat Duck at Bray versus McDonald’s — it’s that level of cordon bleu that’s coming to them. These things are hugely technical and finely-generated for the patient. The patients are really excited about them.”

The new jab is an individualised neo-antigen therapy and is sometimes referred to as a cancer vaccine. It is designed to trigger the immune system so it can fight back against the patient’s specific type of cancer and tumour.

Dr Shaw said: “This is very much an individualised therapy and it’s far cleverer in some senses than a vaccine. It is absolutely custom built for the patient — you couldn’t give this to the next patient in the line because you wouldn’t expect it to work.

“They may have some shared new antigens, but they’re likely to have their own very individual new antigens that are important to their tumour and so, therefore, it is truly personalised.”

The phase three global trial will now include a wider range of patients, and hopes to recruit around 1,100. The UK arm aims to recruit at least 60 to 70 patients across eight centres including in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Leeds.