Nobel medicine prize awarded for revolutionary cancer research
On a day which launched International breast cancer awareness month, the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to two researchers whose immune checkpoint therapy work has "revolutionised cancer treatment and has fundamentally changed the way we view how cancer can be managed."
The Committee said that the discovery work of America's James Allison and Japan's Tasuku Honjo takes "advantage of the immune system's ability to attack cancer cells by releasing the brakes on immune cells".
BREAKING NEWS
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 1, 2018
The 2018 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo “for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation.” pic.twitter.com/gk69W1ZLNI
Thomas Perlmann, the Secretary-General of the Nobel Committee, said on Monday that this Nobel Prize constitutes "a landmark in our fight against cancer".
"Cancer kills millions of people every year and is one of humanity’s greatest health challenges. By stimulating the ability of our immune system to attack tumour cells, this year’s Nobel Prize laureates have established an entirely new principle for cancer therapy", Thomas Perlman said in Stockholm.
