Source: WRAL.com
Posted 7:13 a.m. today
By The New York Times, New York Times
The 2018 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded Monday to James P. Allison of the United States and Tasuku Honjo of Japan for their work on unleashing the immune system’s ability to attack cancer, a breakthrough in developing new cancer treatments.
Why did they win?
Allison and Honjo, working separately, showed in the 1990s how certain proteins act as “brakes” on the immune system’s T-cells, limiting their ability to attack cancer cells, and that suppressing those proteins could transform the body’s ability to fight cancer.
Why is the work important?
Until their breakthroughs, cancer treatment consisted of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Their work led to a fourth class of treatment, harnessing the immune system, what the Nobel committee at the Karolinska Institute called “an entirely new principle for cancer therapy.”
Who are the winners?
Honjo, 76, is a longtime professor at Kyoto…
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