Nobel Prize Winners for Cancer Immunotherapy Discoveries

The discoveries made by American researcher James P. Allison and Japan’s Tasuku Honjo have brought real hope of long-term survival to patients with a wide range of highly lethal cancers, including advanced melanoma, and colon and lung malignancies.
In awarding the $1.01-million prize, the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute hailed Allison’s and Honjo’s discoveries as “a landmark in our fight against cancer.”

The two scientists worked in separate labs and focused on different mechanisms within the immune system. But they both showed how key players called T-cells dial back their attack on cancer — and how to restore those cells’ will to fight.

Their findings have led to the approval of six new treatments for 11 types of cancer. In doing so, they have opened a new front in the treatment of cancer, adding immunotherapy to surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. To date, oncologists have treated hundreds of thousands of cancer patients with these drugs.

Read the article in its entirety from the LA Times, CLICK HERE.