mRNA Cancer Vaccines: What Korean Patients and Their Families in New York and New Jersey Need to Know

The mRNA vaccine technology we all became familiar with after COVID-19 is now being used in cancer treatment as well.

There is one important caveat. mRNA cancer vaccines are not, at this point, a treatment that anyone can walk into an ordinary hospital and receive. Most are still in the clinical trial stage, where their effectiveness and safety are being established through research.

What is an mRNA cancer vaccine?

You can think about it quite simply.

DNA is the blueprint for our bodies, and mRNA is a small set of instructions that carries the necessary information.

An mRNA cancer vaccine tells your immune cells what the characteristics of a cancer cell are. That can help your body’s immune system find and attack those cancer cells.

Some personalized cancer vaccines in particular are being studied by analyzing a patient’s own tumor tissue and building a vaccine matched to that individual’s cancer.

Does it actually work?

One of the most closely watched programs is V940, under development by Moderna and Merck.

In a study of patients with high-risk melanoma, using V940 together with Keytruda produced a reduction in the risk of cancer recurrence or death compared with Keytruda alone. At three years of follow-up, that risk was reduced by approximately 49 percent.

But this should not be described as a cancer vaccine curing cancer. It is a treatment approach that is still under study.

Are there clinical trials running in New York and New Jersey?

Yes. Several trials are actively underway.

At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a Phase 3 trial using V940 together with Keytruda is recruiting patients with non-small cell lung cancer that has been surgically removed. Trial sites include Basking Ridge, Bergen and Monmouth in New Jersey, and Commack, Westchester and Nassau in New York.

Clinical trials studying mRNA-based personalized vaccines are also underway in pancreatic cancer. The MSK study is open to patients with operable pancreatic cancer; its clinical trial registration number is NCT05968326.

What are the costs if you join a clinical trial?

Being in a clinical trial does not automatically mean everything is free.

The investigational vaccine and some of the costs required by the research itself may be covered by the research institution or the pharmaceutical company. Routine care and testing, on the other hand, may be billed to your insurance.

Medicare in particular covers the routine care costs of qualifying cancer clinical trials.

So before you enroll, it is worth asking the study coordinator directly which costs are handled as research expenses and which ones you would be responsible for.

If you have cancer, how do you look into this?

If you are currently in cancer treatment, ask your oncologist directly whether there is an mRNA cancer vaccine trial you would be eligible to join.

You can also search by cancer type and location at the National Institutes of Health’s ClinicalTrials.gov to see which trials are currently recruiting.

mRNA cancer vaccines are not a finished treatment yet. But they are drawing attention as a new therapeutic possibility — one that analyzes the specific characteristics of a patient’s cancer and trains the immune system against it.

Have hope, but the most important thing is to discuss the benefits and the risks of a clinical trial thoroughly with your own doctor before deciding.