Personalised vaccines hold cancer at bay in early trials

The new treatments contain between 10 and 20 different mutated proteins, or 'neoantigens'

A novel class of personalised cancer vaccines, tailored to the tumours of individual patients, kept disease in check in two early-stage clinical trials, pointing to a new way to help the immune system fight back.

Although so-called immuno therapy drugs from the likes of Merck and Co, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Roche are starting to revolutionise cancer care, they still only work for a limited number of patients. By adding a personalised cancer vaccine, scientists believe it should be possible to improve substantially the effectiveness of such immune-boosting medicines.

Twelve skin cancer patients, out of a total of 19 across both the trials,