Allison to get Nobel from king of Sweden
Houston scientist says world will ‘never’ be free of the disease he’s worked to expunge
Jim Allison, the Houston scientist whose breakthrough discovery in immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, will receive his 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine from the king of Sweden on Monday morning.
The awards ceremony in Stockholm, livestreamed at the Nobel Prize website at 9:30 a.m. CST, follows a series of meetings, receptions, dinners and other activities in recent days. The first was a visit Thursday to the Nobel Museum, where Allison signed the bottom of a chair at Bistro Nobel, a tradition among Nobel recipients.
Allison, chairman of immunology at MD Anderson Cancer Center, said at a news conference later Thursday that he expects substantial advances toward treating cancer in the next several decades but acknowledged it is unlikely the disease will be eradicated.
“Soon we’ll get close with some cancers,” the Associated Press quoted Allison as saying. But “the world will never be cancer-free.”
AP also reported that Allison said he intends to donate post-taxes prize money — he and fellow recipient Tasuku Honjo will split 9 million-kronor, which amounts to $999,000 — to support others working in the field and to a charity that supports schools for women.
On Friday, Allison gave a lecture about his discovery that a protein known as CTLA-4 acts as a brake to rein in the immune system. Allison went on to develop a drug, Yervoy, to unleash the brake to destroy cancer cells, the first of what is now a class of drugs that release such brakes. Honjo identified the second such brake, known as PD-1.
Drugs that remove such brakes, known as checkpoint inhibitors, realized the tantalizing promise of immunotherapy, which is now taking its place alongside surgery, radiation and chemotherapy as a pillar of cancer treatment.
Checkpoint inhibitors don’t work in all cancers and patients, but in those they do, it produces lasting benefits not seen with chemotherapy and radiation. Particularly effective in lung cancer and the skin cancer melanoma, both brutal diseases, it is currently the subject of thousands of clinical trials, typically in combination with other therapies, to attempt to extend its benefits to more people.
In keeping with tradition, Allison donated the following artifacts to the Nobel Museum:
• A vial representing the mouse-model monoclonal antibody developed in his lab in 1995 to block CTLA-4.
• A vial of Yervoy.
• The first page of a 1996 article in the journal Science that reported the success of anti-CTLA-4 treatment in freeing T cells to attack cancer in mice.
• The first page of a 2015 review in the journal Cell co-authored by Padmanee Sharma, an MD Anderson professor who is Allison’s longtime research collaborator and spouse.
• A portrait of Allison and Sharma taken by a Dallas photographer.
The activities — including a royal dinner, the official portrait of Nobel winners and a late-night party with local students, known as the Nobel NightCap — will continue through Wednesday.