Immune-stimulating cancer treatment takes 2018 medicine Nobel

Immunologists James Allison and Tasuku Honjo have received the medicine Nobel prize for discovering how to release the brakes cancer puts on the immune system. In the last decade, their work has created powerful drugs – called checkpoint inhibitors – that that activate the body’s own immune response to destroy tumour cells.

‘For cancers such as advanced melanoma, lung, and kidney, these immune-boosting drugs have transformed the outlook for many patients who had run out of options,’ said Charles Swanton, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, in a statement.