Nobel Prize for Medicine Goes to Cancer Immunotherapy Pioneers
Two men are recognized for basic research that unleashed the immune system against cancer, becoming a new pillar of immunotherapy
Immunologists James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo have won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their pioneering work in the relatively new field of cancer immunotherapy.
Allison, a professor at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, discovered that a molecule called CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4) acts as a “brake” on the immune system; remove the brake and—in many cases—immune cells are unleashed to fight the cancer. Allison spent 17 years convincing others that this approach could work, leading to approval in 2011 of the drug Yervoy, which showed near-miraculous results for a fraction of patients with a lethal form of skin cancer.
Red full article at Scientific American by Karen Weintraub on October 1, 2018.
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