A new melanoma vaccine which has almost halved the rate of recurrence is being hailed as cancer’s “penicillin moment”.

In an early stage clinical trial including 79 Australian patients, the personalised vaccine, made by Moderna, produced a 44 per cent reduction in the rate at which skin cancer returned.

CEO of the Cancer Council Victoria, Todd Harper, said it “really does underscore the great progress we’ve made in cancer research”.

Press PLAY below to hear how the vaccine could be a gamechanger

“It’s actually paying dividends because if we look at overall (five year) cancer survival, cancer survival in Victoria right now reaches a record high if 71 per cent in 2021,” he told 3AW Breakfast.

“25 years ago less than half of people diagnosed with cancer were living beyond five years.”

The vaccine is personalised to each individual patient, identifying a patient’s mutations and addressing them specifically.