Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to two researchers for key cancer discovery

The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was jointly awarded this morning to two scientists whose work revealed that the immune system can be tweaked to unleash tumor-attacking T cells.

James Allison: The MD Anderson Cancer Center immunologist studied a protein called CTLA-4 that acts as a brake on the immune system. In the ’90s, he discovered that releasing that brake can lead immune cells to attack tumors. The molecule that lifts the brake became ipilimumab, a breakthrough drug approved by the FDA in 2011 to treat metastatic melanoma.
Tasuku Honjo: In 1992, the Kyoto University immunologist discovered a protein on immune cells called PD-1 that also acts as a brake. Therapies based on his discovery proved to be strikingly effective in the fight against cancer. The FDA approved the first anti PD-1 drug, Keytruda, in 2014.