NOBEL PRIZE
Nobel Prize Medicine winners 2018
October 1, 2018 - James P. Allison (USA) and Tasuku Honjo (JPN) have won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery that the body’s immune system can be harnessed to attack cancer cells.
American James Allison studied a protein that functions as a brake on the immune system.
He realised the potential of releasing the brake and unleashing immune cells to attack tumours. He developed this concept into a new approach for treating patients.
Tasuku Honjo of Japan "discovered a protein on immune cells and revealed that it also operates as a brake, but with a different mechanism of action. Therapies based on his discovery proved to be strikingly effective in the fight against cancer."