Cancer researchers awarded Nobel prize for medicine

By PharmaCompass

2018-10-04

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The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded on Monday to James P. Allison of the United States and Tasuku Honjo of Japan for their work on unleashing the immune system’s ability to attack cancer, a breakthrough in developing new cancer treatments.

The Nobel committee said the duo’s research amounted to a “landmark in our fight against cancer.”

Their approach, known as immune checkpoint theory, had “revolutionized cancer treatment” and brought lasting remissions to many patients who had run out of options.

Prior to Allison and Honjo’s discoveries, cancer treatment consisted of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and hormonal treatments. A statement from the Nobel committee hailed their accomplishments as establishing “an entirely new principle for cancer therapy.”

The first such treatments approved were ipilimumab (brand name Yervoy), nivolumab (Opdivo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda). Others have since come to market.

“I was told by the Nobel committee when I was called this morning that this was the first prize they’ve ever given for cancer therapy,” said Allison, chair of Immunology and executive director of the Immunotherapy Platform at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Allison studied a protein that functions as a brake on the immune system. Releasing the brake allowed immune cells to attack tumors, he found.

“I’m a basic scientist. I did not get into these studies to try to cure cancer. I got into them because I wanted to know how T cells work,” he added. T cells, a type of white blood cell, are part of the immune system and help protect the body from infection and may help fight cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.

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