How much did the personalised melanoma vaccine cut the risk of cancer returning in the global trial?

Professor Georgina Long of Melanoma Institute Australia, who led the trial, said that for high-risk melanoma patients whose tumours had been surgically removed, adding the personalised vaccine to an established immunotherapy drug lowered the risk of the cancer returning or of death by 42%. She said the team had not expected a figure that high.

The trial ran in more than 25 countries and enrolled more than 1,100 patients.
Every patient got immunotherapy, and about two-thirds also received the personalised vaccine.
Long said it is the first time the immune system has been given a patient-specific code to fight in this way.

▸In their words

“decreases their risk of recurrence or death by 42%.” Georgina Long · at 2:46 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Global News Podcast (2026-10-31). Read the whole episode summary →

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