Overview
- Analysis of about 1,000 patients found those who received a Pfizer or Moderna shot within 100 days of starting checkpoint inhibitors lived substantially longer.
- Median overall survival was 37.3 months for vaccinated patients versus 20.6 months for unvaccinated, with three-year survival of 55.7% versus 30.8% in pooled analyses.
- The signal was seen in advanced non-small cell lung cancer and metastatic melanoma and was not observed with non-mRNA vaccines such as flu or pneumonia shots.
- Mouse experiments and immune profiling suggest early type‑I interferon responses from mRNA vaccination may prime tumors to respond better to PD‑1 therapies.
- Authors and outside experts caution the data are retrospective with potential confounding, disclosures note industry ties, and multi-center trials are being planned.