Allison even implemented this knowledge into the development of the drug Yervoy in 2011. A portion of patients taking this drug as treatment for a lethal form of skin cancer showed remarkable improvement. The development of PD-1 therapy is currently underway and being used to treat different forms of cancer including lung cancer.
Cancer immunotherapy has been significantly effective for some cancer patients by adding years to their life or by curing them completely. This form of immunotherapy is currently being pursued through pharmaceutical trials based on these CTLA-4 and PD-1 discoveries.
This research development is extremely exciting as its novel approach uses a patient's own immune system to successfully combat cancer. As the researchers explained, this approach does not target cancer cells like previous treatments, instead it modifies the checkpoints of a patient's immune system. Honjo asserts that both PD-1 and CTLA-4 are immune checkpoints and their related treatment is often called "checkpoint blockade therapy" (Weintraub, 2018).
This is truly an exciting development in the fight against cancer due to the unique and promising treatments that are now possible due to the discovery of CTLA-4 and PD-1 manipulation that can significantly alter immune system responses.
Resources:
Dr. James P. Allison, CRI Scientific Director, Awarded 2018 Nobel Prize along with Dr. Tasuku Honjo. (2018, October 1). Retrieved from https://www.cancerresearch.org/blog/october-2018/james-allison-et-al-2018-nobel-prize-physio-med
Weintraub, K. (2018, October 01). Nobel Prize for Medicine Goes to Cancer Immune Therapy Pioneers. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nobel-prize-for-medicine-goes-to-cancer-immune-therapy-pioneers2/
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