The first of 2018’s Nobel Prizes have been awarded on Monday to immunologists James P. Allison of the MD Anderson-Cancer Centre at the University of Texas, and Tasuku Honjo of Kyoto University. Their “discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation” has won them the ‘2018 Nobel Prize in Psychology or Medicine’
Allison and Honjo’s research into unlocking the power of the immune systems to destroy tumours has lead to breakthrough treatments that could mean the use of the body’s own defences could be used to attack cancer cells. The immune system must be able to distinguish friend from foe, in other words, it must be able to detect foreign threats such as bacteria or viruses, this important role is mostly down to a particular white blood cell called a ’T cell.’ This cell contains some proteins which are responsible for instructing the immune system to start defending itself, but also contain proteins which do the opposite and tell the immune system to slow down. Allison and Honjo, however, have both discovered these ‘blocking’ proteins which slow the immune response, and in doing so, have developed a greater understanding in how to redirect them. The two had found potential new targets for therapy.
Because of this work, the past decade has seen trials in this area on patients with advanced melanoma, and currently new trials are in process in lung and prostate cancers.
