In 2013, Science named cancer immunotherapy its Breakthrough of the Year, and in 2018, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to the 2 researchers who helped established this paradigm-shifting approach to cancer treatment.
James Allison, PhD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center and Tasuku Honjo, PhD, of Kyoto University, Japan, shared the prize for elucidating 2 different immune checkpoint pathways that put the brakes on CD8+ T cells, dampening their killer instincts and preventing them from destroying cancerous cells.