It’s a stark reality that nearly one in five of us will face cancer in our lifetime. In the US alone, more than 600,000 people will lose their lives to cancer this year. We all know someone who has been impacted, whether it’s a current patient, survivor, caregiver, or someone we have tragically lost.

While there has been significant progress in understanding and treating cancer, many unknowns remain. The challenge in fighting cancer has always been its unique nature — every person and every tumor is different. 

However, thanks to incredible advances in medical science, cancer treatment is changing, ushering in a new era of individualized medicine. 

One of the most promising developments is the use of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, to potentially attack cancer with more precision. 

The potential of individualized treatments

mRNA technology could provide more effective and individualized care by enhancing the immune system’s ability to identify and attack cancer cells.

mRNA can teach the body how to make specific proteins that can help your immune system treat certain diseases. Scientists can create mRNA molecules with specific instructions to potentially teach the immune system to distinguish between healthy and cancerous cells. This involves identifying unique proteins, or neoantigens, found only in cancer cells. 

Most neoantigens are unique to each patient’s cancer. These proteins can be used like a barcode. The investigational therapy, carrying the instructions to make these neoantigens, trains the immune system to “read” the barcode as a way of identifying the cancer cells. In other words, it could recognize and target cancer cells with these unique markers. 

mRNA technology has opened several exciting avenues for developing customized, tailored treatment options for each patient. It may also enable the development of broader therapies targeting how cancer cells evade the immune system.

Moderna’s commitment 

Moderna’s mission is to deliver the greatest possible impact to people through mRNA medicines. Staying true to that, the company is driven by a sense of responsibility to explore mRNA’s full potential to treat and prevent cancer.

Moderna is researching both individualized and broader cancer therapies, with early clinical trials showing promise. 

The company will continue to be at the forefront of this new frontier of medicine that could transform the way diseases are treated, from the widespread to the rare. In addition to cancer, the company is researching and developing investigational mRNA vaccines and therapeutic approaches for respiratory viruses, latent and other viruses, and rare diseases.

Moderna will continue to push boundaries, harnessing the power of mRNA to research and develop transformative therapies.

For deeper insights, watch a panel discussion from The Future of Medicine event where experts at Moderna share their expertise.