James Allison had to deal with cancer early. He was a child when his mother died of the disease. Allison's brother succumbed to cancer several years ago.

Today, the research of the American helps to spare some people such a fate. Because Allison discovered a way to help the immune system attack cancer cells more efficiently. Corresponding drugs, so-called checkpoint inhibitors, are already on the market.

For his work, Allison, who works at the University of Texas, receives the Nobel Prize for Medicine this year. Together with him, the Japanese Tasuku Honjo is honored by the University of Kyoto, which also explores these mechanisms.

The two researchers have significantly advanced the fight against cancer, it says in the statement of reasons of the Nobel Prize committee.

Nobel Prize in Medicine: cancer researchers awarded

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Fight cancer from within

Using the immune system to fight cancer sounds plausible - after all, it is his job to dispose of something foreign and sick in the body. The practical implementation, however, turned out to be very difficult. For more than a hundred years, researchers have attempted this with moderate success, writes the Nobel Prize Foundation. Only the work of the now distinguished scientists have brought the breakthrough and thus revolutionized cancer therapy.

In order to understand their research, one has to know a fundamental aspect of the immune system: It must constantly weigh very carefully whether a structure is foreign or pathologically altered and must be destroyed - or if it belongs to the body, is healthy and thus left alone should.

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Immune cells therefore recognize signals from other cells and become active accordingly. Honjo and Allison discovered two proteins that are critically involved in this process, the Japanese called PD-1 and the American CTLA-4.

Release the brakes

Both proteins work as brakes; they can prevent an immune response. Preserving the immune system from overactivity is important. Does it attack its own tissue unfounded, it does not make you healthy, but sick. Autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis are the result. The idea of ​​using these brakes in the treatment of autoimmune diseases is obvious - but in the mid-1990s Allison had a different one: how about releasing the brake so the immune system can attack cancer cells? Because cancer cells use just those brakes to escape the immune system.

Initial experiments on mice were successful, followed by studies with patients. The first drug launched was the checkpoint inhibitor ipilimumab, which solves the CTLA-4 brake. The product is approved in Europe for the treatment of advanced black skin cancer. Meanwhile, other drugs are available that are directed against the discovered by Honjo PD-1. In part, the funds are combined in cancer treatment.

The treatment can have serious side effects, however this is true for all cancer therapies. It also helps only some of the patients, not others. And so far, the checkpoint inhibitors have barely managed to target some of the most common cancers - colon cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer. Even the prices that drug companies call for the novel drugs, one can argue - the cost of a treatment cycle are five or even six digits.

Despite these limitations, the work of Allison and Honjo brought cancer therapy a true breakthrough. Allison, despite his family history, did not originally aim for this. He says he wanted to better understand the processes of T cells in the immune system - "those incredible cells that travel through our bodies and protect us." Now, thanks to his work, these cells can sometimes do that a little better.