AUSTIN, Texas —
A melanoma vaccine clinical trial is in its third phase and looking for participants in the Austin area.
The potential new vaccine is for people who have had high-risk State 2, 3 or 4 melanoma that has already been removed by surgery.
The Austin research leader and medical oncologist said melanoma has a high risk of coming back, but this new treatment uses a person's removed cancer cells to create a tailored vaccine just for them to help prevent it from returning.
"Our dream, our hope is that that you can get more and more technologies like this, that can be personalized to the patient so that it's, you know, hopefully, that limited side effects and toxicity and does an even better job at attacking the cancer," Dr. Jeff Yorio, a Texas Oncology medical oncologist and clinical trial investigator, said.
The treatment uses the same technology that developed the COVID-19 vaccine so fast. The hope is that if the trial is successful, it can go on to help develop other things.
"Basically re-exposing your immune system to that so that they ... that your immune system's really honed in on fighting off that cancer, that disease. And, hopefully, I think that technology could have lots of applications, you know, specifically throughout cancer, certainly with other types of infections as well," Yorio said.
This vaccine would be given in addition to other medications that are already approved to treat melanoma.
If the trial goes well, it will be approved to be used further.
So far, two people have signed up and the researchers are open to more. Visit this website for more information if you're interested in taking part in the trial.