Research, Health - Cancer Researchers Get Nobel Medical Prize

The 2018 Nobel Prize in medicine recognized American James P. Allison and Japanese researcher Tasuku Honjo for a pioneering approach to cancer treatment which harnesses the body's immune system to attack cancer cells.

Dr. Allison is chair of immunology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.  His discovery in 1994 in mice led to an entirely new class of anti-cancer drugs called checkpoint inhibitors.  Dr. Honjo is professor of immunology and genomic medicine at Kyoto University in Japan, and discovered yet another checkpoint inhibitor pathway.  These led to new treatments that have saved tens of thousands of lives, including that of former US President Jimmy Carter who was treated with an experimental version of the drug when he was diagnosed with advanced melanoma that had spread to his liver and brain.

Human immune cells (T cells) called seek out and destroy invasive bacteria or viruses, but seem to steer clear of cancer cells that have accumulated mutations that propel them to divide abnormally.  Honjo had first discovered a protein called PD-1 that held back immune cells from attacking cancer cells; Allison discovered another protein called CLTA-4 that also prevent the immune system from dealing with tumors.

"I wanted to take a rational approach to figure out how T cells worked," Allison says, "And I thought maybe disabling the brakes was a simple idea.  But until I knew there was a brake, there was no way to come up with this."

Since checkpoint inhibitors were approved in the US in 2011, the drugs are helping people with lung and skin cancers experienced drastic remissions.  Allison would like to see that success expanded to patients with more stubborn cancers such as breast, prostate and colon.