What better way to ensure lifetime care than training your own cells to tackle harmful ones? Cancer is characterized by the proliferation of abnormal cells spread to healthy organs and tissues. It is classified as one of humanity’s most prevalent, and heartbreaking challenges. So, it comes as no surprise that this year’s Nobel laureates, James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo, were commended for their pioneering discovery of a way to stimulate the immune system to attack tumor cells.
Both Allison and Honjo’s research recognized proteins which acted as “brakes” within the immune system. By releasing the “brakes,” the immune system’s response to external threats, like those brought upon by cancer cells, could be augmented.
After his discovery, Allison developed an antibody and later conducted a study on patients with advanced melanoma. It was revealed that signs of remaining cancer vanished, which suggests progress in treating cancer. Likewise, the clinical trials following Honjo’s research were successful in inducing long-term remission for patients suffering from metastatic cancer.
New forms of cancer treatment have allowed for cancer’s impact to steadily decrease over time. From 2006-2015, cancer-related death rates have decreased by 1.8% per year among men, and 1.4% per year among women. From 1990 to 2014, the cancer death rate in the United States has decreased by over 25%. Scientific discoveries, like those made by the Nobel laureates, will only continue to help. This discovery has added a new frontier to cancer treatment, providing a promising alternative to radiation or chemotherapy.
The journey to this discovery spanned continents, exemplifying what science is at its best: a collaboration traversing limitations. Allison was faced with research in the 70s aiming to ensure that T-cells would not be able to attack healthy cells and that the protein CTLA-4 would act as a brake for the T-cells. He therefore designed an antibody to deploy the brakes in T-cells, so that they would only attack healthy cells. Testing on mice resulted in the disappearance of malignant tumours, yet the pharmaceutical industry showed little interest in these initial findings. But by 2010, Allison’s persistent efforts to apply this approach to humans could no longer be ignored.
Consider advanced melanoma, a diagnosis that almost always leads to death within a year. One of Allison’s landmark clinical studies that involved advanced melanoma patients showed that close to half of those who received the treatment were still alive a year later, and that many would go on to live for years.
In 2011, a CTLA-4 inhibitor called ipilimumab (marketed as the cancer drug Yervoy) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for metastatic melanoma.The many patients successfully treated by immunotherapy and the huge potential it has for future cancer treatment is a testament to the promise of basic science.
Fun Fact
In 2011, Ralph Steinman, PhD was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the dendritic cell, which allowed for the development of the first vaccine for prostate cancer.
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