TOKYO -- The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to immunologists James P. Allison of the U.S. and Japan's Tasuku Honjo for their "discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation," the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden announced on Oct. 1.
Honjo's discovery of Programmed Cell Death Protein 1 has led to major breakthroughs in cancer treatment, in a process whereby immune cells can be made capable of attacking cancer cells by blocking the PD-1 channel.
