Melanoma coverage on Peptide News Digest is dominated by peptide cancer vaccine work. The most cited 2026 read: a randomized Phase I/II trial of a melanoma helper peptide vaccine combined with anti-CD27 antibody varlilumab reported 69% four-year disease-free survival in the combination arm versus 20% with vaccine alone — though varlilumab depleted circulating CD4+ T cells, raising questions about the mechanism.
Other threads: Evaxion's EVX-01 in melanoma, the Mel39 trial, and adjuvant immunotherapy work pairing peptide vaccines with checkpoint inhibitors. Several AACR 2026 abstracts also covered peptide-vaccine programs in melanoma.
Stories here cover trial readouts, AACR and ASCO presentations, and the broader peptide-vaccine field in melanoma. See #peptide-vaccine, #cancer-vaccine, and #mel39-trial.
A post-hoc analysis in the International Journal of Cancer tracked 51 patients from the Mel39 randomized phase II trial of multipeptide vaccination for resected high-risk melanoma. At median follow-up of 16.1 years (21.2 years for surviving participants), the 12-peptide vaccine arm reported 65% 10-year and 49% 20-year overall survival vs. the 4-peptide arm (HR 0.64, 95% CI 0.29–1.40). The 20-year dataset represents among the longest published follow-up for any cancer peptide vaccine and reinforces that antigen breadth drives durability; sex-specific differences were documented, with females showing improved recurrence-free survival.
Evaxion's AI-designed personalized neoantigen peptide vaccine EVX-01 combined with Keytruda produced a 75% objective response rate at 2 years in advanced melanoma patients, with 86% of vaccine targets triggering de novo T-cell responses. Data were presented April 22 at AACR 2026; 3-year follow-up expected in H2 2026. The 86% target-hit rate demonstrates AI-designed peptide neoantigen selection maturing for cancer vaccines.
A randomized Phase I/II trial of a melanoma helper peptide vaccine with anti-CD27 antibody varlilumab reported 69% four-year disease-free survival in the combination arm versus 20% with vaccine alone. However, varlilumab depleted circulating CD4+ T cells, potentially limiting vaccine synergy and warranting further optimization.