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Some COVID-19 Vaccines May Strengthen Immunotherapy’s Effectiveness

In addition to protecting people from infection, mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination may also improve treatment responses in people with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and melanoma who are given immune checkpoint inhibitors. Researchers presented findings from a preliminary study at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2025 in Berlin, which were also published in Nature. The study examined records from people treated with immunotherapy for stage III or IV NSCLC or metastatic melanoma, MedPage Today reported. People with NSCLC who were vaccinated within 100 days of starting immunotherapy were more likely to live three years after treatment: Overall survival was 55.8% for those who got an mRNA vaccine compared with 30.6% among those who did not. People treated for metastatic melanoma had a similar difference in survival, with a three-year overall survival of 67.5% among those given an mRNA vaccine compared with 44.1% in those who did not get one. COVID-19 vaccines that use mRNA give human cells instructions to create the spike protein associated with the virus, which can train the immune system to recognize this key feature and stop future infections. Although it didn’t matter what brand of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine people received, it was the mRNA itself that provided this effect, as the flu or pneumonia vaccine did not impact survival, Medscape reported. “What it shows is that mRNA medicines are continuing to surprise us in how beneficial they can be to human health,” Jeff Coller, an mRNA researcher at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, who wasn’t a researcher on the study, told the Associated Press.

Padcev Plus Keytruda Improves Survival and Response in Muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer

Research presented at the ESMO Congress 2025 suggests that an antibody-drug conjugate and an immune checkpoint inhibitor given before and after surgery can improve survival in people with muscle-invasive bladder cancer who are not eligible for cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Padcev (enfortumab vedotin) plus Keytruda (pembrolizumab) elicited a 60% improvement in the risk of recurrence or symptoms from the disease and a 50% reduction in the risk for death. All of the people in this phase III trial underwent surgery, but 170 received Padcev plus Keytruda before the procedure and 174 did not, Oncology News Central reported. More than half of the people who received the combination prior to surgery had no remaining signs of cancer. Jonathan E. Rosenberg, a genitourinary medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, who spoke as an invited discussant at the event, said the treatment combination brought dramatic and major benefits to patients. “We are now entering a new era in the treatment of muscle-invasive bladder cancer,” Rosenberg said.

Verzenio With Endocrine Therapy Improves Survival in High-risk Early Breast Cancer

Adding two years of Verzenio (abemaciclib) to endocrine therapy improved survival compared with endocrine therapy alone in hormone receptor-positive early-stage breast cancer found to be at high risk for recurrence. Research, presented at the ESMO Congress 2025 and simultaneously published in Annals of Oncology, included people with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative, early-stage breast cancer with features that suggested a high risk of recurrence, including signs of cancer found in nearby lymph nodes. Researchers assigned 2,808 people to receive Verzenio, a CDK4/6 inhibitor, alongside endocrine therapy for the first two years, whereas 2,829 people received endocrine therapy alone. Everyone in the trial received endocrine therapy for at least five years, a regimen commonly given after breast cancer treatment to prevent the cancer from coming back. Seven years after starting endocrine therapy, 86.8% of people in the Verzenio group were alive compared with 85% of those in the endocrine therapy alone group. This represented a 16% reduction in the risk for death in the Verzenio group, MedPage Today reported. At seven years, 77.4% of people assigned Verzenio plus endocrine therapy had gone without a cancer recurrence or a new invasive cancer compared with 70.9% with endocrine therapy alone. Researchers observed a similar trend for survival without cancer spreading to distant parts of the body, which was 80% in people given Verzenio compared with 74.9% in the endocrine therapy group. Though CDK4/6 inhibitors are widely used to treat metastatic hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, some have recently been approved for use in early-stage breast cancer based on research that found they can lower the risk of cancer returning. “This is the first targeted therapy that we’ve had that has improved overall survival in high-risk, hormone receptor-positive patients,” Joyce O’Shaughnessy, a medical oncologist at Baylor Scott & White Health in Dallas and co-investigator of the trial, told MedPage Today.