INT for Melanoma 'Coming Very Fast,' Dr. Joel Claveau Says at Noah Worcester Meeting

The next big thing in melanoma treatment may be individualized neoantigen therapy (INT)—according to Joel Claveau, MD, in a presentation at the Noah Worcester Dermatological Society meeting in Quebec City, Quebec.

“It’s almost rocket science, but it’s really coming very fast,” Dr. Claveau said of mRNA-4157 (V940).

INT entails creating a custom vaccine for each patient based on blood sample, Dr. Claveau explained.

“You take the melanoma in the blood of the patient, you send it to the lab … and they will find the new antigen of the melanoma, and they will create a vaccine specific to the patient containing the neoantigen and reinject with immunotherapy,” he said, adding that the technology is being studied currently in other types of cancer, including kidney cancer.

Dr. Claveau noted that research by the late Dr. Jeffrey S. Weber indicated a 10% to 15% improvement with INT and pembrolizumab when compared with pembrolizumab alone,