In general, there are 2 main types of vaccines:
The most common type of vaccines that the general public talk about are preventative vaccines, they are given to protect the body against a specific illness or disease, for example the flu, meningitis, or Covid-19. A weakened form of the disease is given as a vaccine to boost the body’s natural immune system to identify and attack the specific bacteria or virus that may try to enter the body.
There are also preventative vaccines for cancer that are given to stop you from getting the virus that may commonly cause that type of cancer, for example, the human-papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine is given to prevent cervical cancer.
Cancer researchers are also making vaccines to treat certain types of cancer. These are given after a person already has the cancer in their body, rather than to stop them from getting it.
These cancer vaccines are a type of immunotherapy treatment that boosts the immune system to help the body find, attack and kill the cancer cells. In melanoma, some of these vaccines are being tested in clinical trials. To find out more about clinical trials see here.
Cancer cells are different from normal cells as they have changes within their DNA (the building instruction manual of all cells in the human body) called mutations. These mutations within the cancer cells can create proteins called neoantigens, which are not usually seen in normal cells. These neoantigen proteins on the surface of melanoma cells can allow the body’s immune system to recognise the melanoma cells as foreign and therefore try to attack and kill them. Cancer vaccines aim to help the immune system recognise these neoantigens, and to attack and destroy the melanoma cells that have them.
Scientists are still studying different types of treatment cancer vaccines (also known as therapeutic cancer vaccines), and we will talk about some examples below.
They work by delivering bits of protein (neoantigen) found at high levels in certain cancers. When the patient’s immune system finds this protein, they become more likely to attack and kill the cancer cells.
Instead of delivering bits of protein directly into the body, these vaccines provide cells with the instructions (in the form of mRNA or DNA – the building blocks of all human cells) to make the protein (neoantigens) in the body, which then can boost the immune system to find, attack and kill the cancer cells.
These vaccines can also be personalised to an individual patient’s melanoma, see our INT page for more details on personalised cancer vaccines.
This is a slightly different type of treatment vaccine. Scientists know that bacteria and viruses can trigger the immune system to attack and kill foreign cells in the body, therefore they have developed vaccines with modified bacteria or viruses that can infect and attack cancer cells and also boost the immune system to continue attacking and killing cancer cells.
You will usually receive the vaccine as an injection. Some vaccines are given as an injection under the skin (subcutaneous injection) or into a muscle (intramuscular injection).
Some melanoma vaccines are being tested in clinical trials and are given in combination with other standard immunotherapy treatments, so that they work together to boost the immune system to attack and kill the melanoma cells.
See our Melanoma TrialFinder to find information on current cancer vaccine trials.
There is a lot of interest in cancer vaccines for the treatment for melanoma.
At the international 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, researchers reported promising five year patient outcomes from an initial cancer vaccine study in people with advanced (stage 3B, 3C, 3D and resected stage 4) melanoma. The personalised mRNA cancer vaccine, known as intismeran, was given alongside pembrolizumab (immunotherapy) after surgery.
More recently, a planned interim analysis of the Phase 3 INTerpath-001 trial reported positive results for intismeran in combination with pembrolizumab. People receiving the combination were less likely to have their melanoma return or spread to other parts of the body compared with those receiving pembrolizumab alone. The trial will continue to follow participants to assess longer term outcomes, including overall survival.
Intismeran is currently an investigational treatment and is not yet routinely available for people with melanoma. These positive results mark an important step forward in the development of personalised cancer vaccines, adding to the growing evidence for more individualised approaches to melanoma treatment.
Read our latest news item about the Phase 3 results for intismeran.
The Vaccine Innovation Pathway (VIP) works in close partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and is focused on supporting the UK to deliver vaccine trials to lots of people.
NHS England have also launched a Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad (CVLP), which works closely with the VIP and NHS hospitals in England to select possible patients whose cancer could be tested to see if they can take part in a clinical trial, helping cancer vaccine treatments reach more people.
For more information on these projects see our trial news page.
https://www.aacr.org/blog/2024/06/28/what-is-a-cancer-vaccine/
