A personalized mRNA vaccine shows years-long protection against pancreatic cancer

Surgeons at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center removed pancreatic tumors from 16 patients, then sent the tissue to BioNTech, which sequenced each tumor's mutations and built a unique mRNA vaccine for that patient, designed to teach their immune system to recognize up to 20 mutated proteins specific to their own cancer. Eight of the 16 patients mounted a strong immune response. Six of those eight remained cancer-free more than three years later, reported February 19, 2025, in Nature, with immune cells still circulating in their blood years after the last dose. This is the first mRNA application in this timeline built around treating existing disease rather than preventing infection, and it requires manufacturing a distinct vaccine for every single patient, a fundamentally different production model from a mass-produced vaccine.