The 2018 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded jointly to James P. Allison, from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and Takusu Honjo, from Kyoto University in Japan, “for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation.”
This type of therapy is a new approach to cancer treatment. Instead of targeting the tumour cells themselves, it releases the brakes on immune cells, allowing them to attack cancer cells.
The drugs that have been developed from their discoveries are known as checkpoint inhibitors.
