--- title: 'Clinical Daily Summary: What Happened on October 23, 2026' headline: Moderna’s personalized melanoma vaccine cuts recurrence risk by 42% description: Tango reported responses to a pancreatic cancer drug combination, while AbbVie’s lutikizumab met a Phase 3 endpoint in hidradenitis suppurativa. url: https://thebench.bio/news/clinical/2026-10-23 topic: clinical date: '2026-10-23' covers: - '2026-10-23' date_published: '2026-10-23T12:02:53Z' date_modified: '2026-10-23T12:02:53Z' tags: - Clinical - Industry - Research sources: 12 publisher: TheBench.Bio --- # Clinical Daily Summary: What Happened on October 23, 2026 **Moderna’s personalized melanoma vaccine cuts recurrence risk by 42%** Tango reported responses to a pancreatic cancer drug combination, while AbbVie’s lutikizumab met a Phase 3 endpoint in hidradenitis suppurativa. ## Today in brief In a Phase 3 trial, intismeran autogene plus Keytruda reduced the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 42% compared with Keytruda alone. [1] Tango Therapeutics’ experimental drug with Revolution Medicines’ Rasonque produced tumor responses in 82% of patients with a type of advanced pancreatic cancer. [2] Lutikizumab met its primary endpoint in a Phase 3 hidradenitis suppurativa trial, with HiSCR75 responses of 31.4% versus 23.4% on placebo at week 16. [3] [4] ## Moderna’s personalized vaccine lowers melanoma recurrence risk with Keytruda Adding intismeran autogene to adjuvant Keytruda lowered the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 42% compared with Keytruda alone in a Phase 3 trial. [1] The result was statistically significant, with a hazard ratio of 0.58 and P\<0.001. [1] The trial did not compare the combination with strategies that start immunotherapy before surgery. [1] The vaccine is designed around mutations specific to each patient’s tumor. [5] ## Tango reports an 82% response rate with a pancreatic cancer combination Tango reported tumor responses in 82% of patients with a particular type of advanced pancreatic cancer who received its experimental drug with Rasonque. [2] At nine months, 88% of patients were alive without their tumors progressing. [2] The reported regimen does not include chemotherapy. [2] ## Lutikizumab meets Phase 3 endpoint, with an 8-point placebo-adjusted response AbbVie’s lutikizumab met the primary endpoint in the Phase 3 INTREPID trial for hidradenitis suppurativa, a chronic inflammatory skin disease. [3] [4] At week 16, 31.4% of participants on lutikizumab achieved HiSCR75, a reduction of at least 75% in inflamed bumps and abscesses, compared with 23.4% on placebo. [3] [4] Leerink analysts said the roughly eight-percentage-point difference was below the 17% to 20% response rate they believed investors expected, creating uncertainty about the result’s implications for the drug and the IL-1 pathway. [3] AbbVie said the trial also met eight secondary endpoints, including measures of pain and flares, and that adverse-event rates were similar between groups. [3] [4] ## Also worth knowing - In a 580-patient lymphoma cohort, a higher share of naive-like T cells in axicabtagene ciloleucel products was associated with longer progression-free survival. Researchers observed the association in an independent validation cohort as well. [6] - A Phase 2 trial of the KRAS-targeted vaccine camupepimut in 144 people with resected pancreatic cancer missed its primary disease-free survival endpoint. Median survival was 23.8 months with the vaccine and 21.2 months under observation. [7] - Alnylam said the highest brezosiran dose lowered mutant huntingtin levels in spinal fluid by an average of 60% or 64%, depending on the assay. The company plans a placebo-controlled study next year. [8] - Roche removed its experimental donor-cell CAR-T candidate RG6540 from its Phase 1 pipeline on October 22, along with six other drugs. CEO Thomas Schinecker said other CD19/CD20 candidates from the Poseida acquisition were better. [9] - An indirect analysis of Phase 3 trial data associated Lilly’s orforglipron with greater 52-week reductions in body weight and HbA1c than oral semaglutide. Direct comparisons are needed to establish the clinical importance of the differences. [10] - GFAP measured within 24 hours of injury may help identify traumatic brain injury patients with abnormalities missed by an initial CT scan, a study found. The finding needs further validation. [11] - Early Phase 1 and initial Phase 2 results for invikafusp alfa showed objective responses in 4 of 27 people treated at the selected biological doses. The trial continues in Phase 2. [12] ## The day in numbers - **42%**: Lower risk of melanoma recurrence or death with intismeran autogene added to Keytruda in the Phase 3 trial. [1] - **82%**: Share of patients with a type of advanced pancreatic cancer who had tumor responses to Tango’s combination. [2] - **31.4% vs. 23.4%**: HiSCR75 response rates at week 16 with lutikizumab and placebo, respectively. [3] ## Also published - [ACT Brief: Orchestrated AI Clinical Environments, eSource Coordinator Satisfaction, and Faster Clinical Trials Act](), Applied Clinical Trials - [Granata Bio concludes screening in Phase III GRACE trial for IVF](), Clinical Trials Arena - [ESMO26: Moderna, MSD reveal cancer jab data early after leak](), pharmaphorum - [Moderna, Merck shares fall on eagerly anticipated cancer vaccine results](), BioPharma Dive - [Roche’s pharma sales grow 7% but pipeline trimmed down ](), Pharmaceutical Technology ## Sources 1. [Moderna’s melanoma vaccine data bring adoption test into focus](), BioCentury, 2026-10-23 2. [STAT+: Tango reports 82% tumor response rate in trial of combo therapy for advanced pancreatic cancer](), STAT Biotech, 2026-10-23 3. [AbbVie’s skin disease drug posts Phase III win as market competition heats up ](), Clinical Trials Arena, 2026-10-23 4. [STAT+: AbbVie skin disorder drug succeeds in late-stage trial, but results miss market expectations ](), STAT Biotech, 2026-10-22 5. [STAT+: Detailed data confirm Moderna and Merck cancer vaccine met key endpoints in melanoma trial](), STAT Biotech, 2026-10-22 6. [Determinants of response to CAR T cell therapy in a multicenter, multi-trial cohort analysis of patients with lymphoma](), Nature Medicine, 2026-10-23 7. [Lymph node-targeted, mKRAS-specific amphiphile vaccine in pancreatic cancer: the randomized phase 2 AMPLIFY-7P trial](), Nature Medicine, 2026-10-23 8. [STAT+: Alnylam says Huntington’s drug shows promise in early study](), STAT Biotech, 2026-10-23 9. [Roche scraps off-the-shelf CAR-T from Poseida deal worth up to $1.5B](), European Biotechnology, 2026-10-23 10. [Orforglipron shows weight and glucose advantages over oral semaglutide in indirect comparison](), Pharmafile, 2026-10-23 11. [Blood Test Could Identify Brain Injuries Missed by CT Scans](), Inside Precision Medicine, 2026-10-23 12. [Bispecific dual T cell agonist invikafusp alfa in solid tumors: the phase 1/2 START-001 trial](), Nature Medicine, 2026-10-23 --- TheBench.Bio wrote this from the reporting cited above, with a language model drafting and editing. [1]: [2]: [3]: [4]: [5]: [6]: [7]: [8]: [9]: [10]: [11]: [12]: