Research
Cancer vaccine development gets complicated
Nature · By Asher Mullard ·
The Brief
- Merck and Moderna's intismeran autogene succeeded in a landmark melanoma trial.
- The oncology community still has more questions than answers about the future of cancer vaccines.
- The article is a Nature Reviews Drug Discovery piece published online 13 November 2026.
Why it matters
The melanoma trial result is an early landmark for individualized mRNA-style cancer vaccines, but open questions about their future affect how researchers design and evaluate future trials.
Who’s affected
- cancer researchers and oncology clinicians
- drug developers working on cancer vaccines
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Published online: 13 November 2026; doi:10.1038/d41573-026-00181-8 Merck and Moderna’s intismeran autogene succeeded in a landmark melanoma trial, but the oncology community still has more questions than answers about the future of cancer vaccines.