Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded to American and Japanese scientists
Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded to American and Japanese scientists
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo for the discoveries that led to a new way of treating cancer through attack the body's immune system instead of the tumor.
The work of Drs. Allison and Honjo formed the backbone of the new generations of immunotherapy drugs against cancer that are transforming the treatment of some of the most difficult cancers to treat. Although not all patients respond, these medications can have a dramatic impact on advanced cases, especially melanoma, a form of skin cancer, and lung cancer.
His work is "a milestone in our fight against cancer," said the Swedish Academy, the body responsible for awarding the prize, announcing the awards.
The tumor cells have ways of evading the destruction of the body's immune system. The Nobel Prize-winning research found ways to release the brakes on immune cells known as T cells, allowing them to attack cancers.
Dr. Allison, president of immunology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, he realized he could develop a way to block a protein called CTLA-4 in T cells that acts as a brake. The research eventually led to the first of the new immunotherapy drugs, Yervoy from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.. The Food and Drug Administration of the United States approved Yervoy in 2011 to treat the deadly melanoma of skin cancer. The drug generated global sales of $ 1.2 billion for Bristol-Myers in 2017.
A similar concept was the basis behind the next wave of drugs, targeting a protein called programmed death receptor 1, or PD-1, which also acts as a brake on the cells of the immune system. Dr. Honjo, a professor in the department of immunology and genomic medicine at Kyoto University, realized that PD-1 slows the cells of the immune system in a different way than other so-called "control points".
He felt that an antibody for PD-1 could complement The CTLA-4 inhibitors, and perhaps have fewer side effects, according to a presentation of the Nobel-winning work at the ceremony held in Stockholm today.
Nearly two decades ago, researcher James Allison found a way to use the body's own immune system to kill malignant cells, a discovery that is transforming cancer treatment and saving lives. Photography: Michael Stravato for The Wall Street Journal. Originally published on December 4, 2014.
The FDA began approving PD-1 inhibitors in 2014, including Merck & Co. Keytruda Y Opdivo de Bristol-Myers. Drugs targeted to PD-1 have been approved to treat a variety of tumors, including melanoma and lung cancer.
Keytruda is the drug that the former president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, said in 2015 that he received to treat the melanoma he had spread to other parts of your body. After the treatment, Carter said that imaging showed no signs of cancer.
Dr. Honjo told a press conference at Kyoto University that he was "extremely honored" to receive the award. Dr. Honjo, who has received multiple awards in Japan, said he appreciates the value of his work when recovering patients thank him for developing the treatment.
When asked what he would like to do now, Dr. Honjo said he was working hard to shoot at his age in golf. He is now 76 years old, so that would mean shooting at 76 or less. "It's my biggest goal," he said. "I play golf without rest every week and I practice putting at home".
More seriously, he said that cancer treatment was still a "work in progress" and predicted that by the end of this century, cures would be found for patients who do not receive help from current therapies.
At a press conference in New York City after he won, Dr. Allison said that while he has a personal family history with cancer, "I did not go into this to cure cancer." He described himself as a basic scientist, focused on understanding the mechanism of the immune system. "I wanted to know how T cells worked," he said.
He said that his current work focuses on trying to understand why drugs work and why they fail. "We still have a lot of work to do," he said.
When the Nobel Prize ceremony began at 5:30 a.m. Eastern Summer Time, the committee members said they had not yet been able to reach Dr. Allison by phone to inform him that he had won the highest scientific honor. Dr. Allison was in a hotel room in New York City, where he attends a conference on cancer. He said his son was the first to tell him, followed by a call from a Swedish reporter, and friends who knocked on his hotel door at 6 in the morning and celebrated with bottles of champagne. "It was tremendous," he said.
Dr. Allison says that he knows Dr. Honjo, his Nobel prize winner, very well, and that they shared another important scientific award, the Tang Prize. Dr. Honjo plays golf, while Dr. Allison does not, he said, but they enjoy a cordial relationship and like to talk about science together.
Dr. Allison has spoken publicly about his personal connection to cancer. His mother died of lymphoma when he was a child, and he lost two uncles, a brother and friends because of the disease. He himself is a survivor of cancer, prostate cancer and melanoma, and is currently on treatment for bladder cancer.
During part of his ongoing work, he, his wife and his research partner, Anderson co-investigator Padmanee Sharma, collect tissue from patients before and after receiving immunotherapy treatments, to study why some people respond and others do not. He said researchers suspect there may be a dozen checkpoints that play a role, although not all are equally important. In prostate cancer, he says, they are studying combinations of checkpoint inhibitors. "We have a very good idea about how to get some cancers to respond," he said.
In addition to science, Dr. Allison's key passion is music. Play the harmonica in a band with other doctors and researchers called the Control Points. One of the most proud moments of Dr. Allison, his friends say, was playing the harmonica on stage in front of 70,000 people with country singer Willie Nelson.
Lewis Lanier, chairman of the department of microbiology and immunology at the University of California, San Francisco, and longtime friend of Dr. Allison, said the drugs that emerged from Dr. Allison's research were not only due to his scientific discoveries but also to your persistence "He spent 10 years knocking on the doors of many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies saying that this concept will work," said Dr. Lanier.
At the time the two scientists were making their advances, the prevailing notion in the field was that chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery are the ways to treat cancer. "Immunology was largely ignored and not taken seriously," Dr. Lanier said.
The announcement of the award begins a week of recognitions awarded by the academy for its efforts in the fields of science, economics and the promotion of peace.
The Nobel Literature was canceled this year, for the first time since World War II, after the academy said it needed time to repair the damage of a prolonged scandal On allegations of sexual assault and financial irregularity. Two literature prizes will be awarded next year.
The French at the center of the scandal was convicted by a Swedish court on Monday Two years in prison for rape.
- Denise Roland and Alistair Gale contributed to this article.
Write to Amy Dockser Marcus in amy.marcus@wsj.com, Peter Loftus in peter.loftus@wsj.com and Joanna Sugden in joanna.sugden@wsj.com
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