Moderna and Merck & Co said on Monday they have started a late-stage trial of their experimental personalized mRNA cancer treatment in combination with blockbuster drug Keytruda for patients with a type of lung cancer.

The therapy, V940, belongs to a class of treatments called m-RNA-based individualized neoantigen therapy (INT) and is tailored for each patient to generate T-cells, a key part of the body's immune response, based on the specific mutational signature of a tumor.

Recruitment for the study has begun globally with the first patients enrolled in Australia, the companies said.

Moderna and Merck started a late-stage study in July testing the combination therapy in patients with melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer.