Immune checkpoint inhibitors win the 2018 Nobel Prize

• Published in: Biomedical Journal Vol. 42; no. 5; pp. 299 - 306
• Main Authors: Huang, Pei-Wei, Chang, John Wen-Cheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Limited 01-10-2019; Chang Gung University; Elsevier
• Subjects: and; Antigens; Apoptosis; Breast cancer; Cancer; Cancer immunotherapy; Cancer therapies; Cell activation; Cervical cancer; Chemotherapy; Clinical trials; Colorectal cancer; CTLA-4 protein; Cytotoxicity; Disease; Drugs; Immune checkpoint inhibitors; Immune system; Immunology; Immunotherapy; Inhibitors; Liver cancer; Lung cancer; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes T; Medical prognosis; Medical research; Melanoma; Metastases; Metastasis; Mucin; Nobel prizes; PD-1 protein; Pharmaceutical industry; Skin cancer; Cancer immunotherapy; Nobel Prize; Immune checkpoint inhibitors
• ISSN: 2319-4170; 2320-2890
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bj.2019.09.002

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Tasuku Honjo and James Allison for their discoveries in cancer immunology. Professor Honjo was awarded due to his discovery of the programmed death molecule-1 (PD-1) on T cells. Professor Allison discovered another important immunosuppressive molecule: cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4). Suppression of T cell activation by PD-1 and/or CTLA-4 is considered one of the major escape mechanisms of cancer cells. Inhibition of these molecules by immune checkpoint inhibitors can successfully activate the immune system to fight cancer. Checkpoint inhibitors have brought about a major breakthrough in cancer immunotherapy, reviving the hope of curing patients with end-stage cancer, including a wide variety of cancer types. In metastatic malignant melanoma, the previous long-term survival of only 5% can now be extended to 50% with anti-PD-1 plus anti-CTLA-4 combined treatment in the latest report. More checkpoint molecules such as lymphocyte-activation gene 3 and T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain 3 are under investigation. The achievement of Drs. Honjo and Allison in cancer immunotherapy has encouraged research into other immune-pathological diseases.