After public school teacher Gary Keblish was diagnosed with melanoma in 2019, a surgeon cut out the tumor. But he wasn’t out of the woods. In some patients, melanoma aggressively recurs after surgery, so his doctors referred him to a new trial: For Merck and Moderna’s personalized mRNA cancer vaccine.
Speaking by video at the STAT Summit on Thursday, Keblish compared the journey — in all its physical and emotional turbulence — to a trip on Ms. Frizzle’s Magic School Bus. “Seatbelts, everyone!,” he said, quoting the iconic line.