(Jose A. Bernat Bacete/Moment RF/Getty Images)

It's been 20 years since Australian researchers created the world's first vaccine developed specifically to prevent cancer.

Thanks to the HPV vaccine, Australia is on track to become one of the first nations in the world to eliminate cervical cancer.

Now, research led by scientists Down Under has made another breakthrough – this time for skin cancer.

The first personalized mRNA cancer vaccine has now succeeded in a phase 3 clinical trial, reducing the risk of melanoma returning or causing death by 42 percent compared with standard immunotherapy alone.

The results are even better than scientists were expecting.

The global principal investigator, medical oncologist Georgina Long from Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA), presented the results at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2026.

They are set to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine .

"These findings are a foundational shift in our approach to cancer: harnessing the immune…