American James Allison and Japan's Tasuku Honjo have won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine for a pioneering new approach to cancer treatment.
The Nobel committee said the pair's research -- which harnesses the body's immune system to attack cancer cells -- amounted to a "landmark in our fight against cancer."
“Allison and Honjo showed how different strategies for inhibiting the brakes on the immune system can be used in the treatment of cancer”, the Nobel Assembly said awarding $1M prize.
Both laureates studied proteins that prevent the body and it’s immune cells(T-cells) from attacking tumour cells effectively.
The studied a protein that functions as a break on the immune system and realized the potential for unleashing immune cells to attack tumours if the brake could be removed.
Allison teaches at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, whereas Honjo is a professor at Kyoto University. Both discovered the protein mechanism separately.
“The seminal discoveries by the two laureates constitute a landmark in our fight against cancer”, the institute said.
