Jim Allison, Ph.D., Nobel Prize News Conference

MD Anderson hosted a news conference with Nobel Prize winner Jim Allison, Ph.D. Allison was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for launching an effective new way to attack cancer by treating the immune system rather than the tumor.
Allison is the first MD Anderson scientist to receive the world’s most preeminent award for outstanding discoveries in the fields of life sciences and medicine.
“I’m honored and humbled to receive this prestigious recognition,” Allison said. “A driving motivation for scientists is simply to push the frontiers of knowledge. I didn’t set out to study cancer, but to understand the biology of T cells, these incredible cells that travel our bodies and work to protect us.”
Allison started his career at MD Anderson in 1977, arriving as one of the first employees of a new basic science research center located in Smithville, Texas. He was recruited back to MD Anderson in November 2012 to lead the Immunology Department and to establish an immunotherapy research platform for MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program.
The prize recognizes Allison’s basic science discoveries on the biology of T cells, the adaptive immune system’s soldiers, and his invention of immune checkpoint blockade to treat cancer.
Allison’s crucial insight was to block a protein on T cells that acts as a brake on their activation, freeing the T cells to attack cancer. He developed an antibody to block the checkpoint protein CTLA-4 and demonstrated the success of the approach in experimental models. His work led to development of the first immune checkpoint inhibitor drug. Ipilimumab was approved for late-stage melanoma by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2011.
His drug, known commercially as Yervoy, became the first to extend the survival of patients with late-stage melanoma. Follow-up studies show 20 percent of those treated live for at least three years with many living for 10 years and beyond, unprecedented results. Subsequent research has extended this approach to new immune regulatory targets, most prominently PD-1 and PD-L1, with drugs approved to treat certain types and stages of melanoma, lung, kidney, bladder, gastric, liver, cervical, colorectal, and head and neck cancers and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Clinical trials are underway in many other cancer types.
Learn more about Dr. Allison's Nobel Prize: www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/2....
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[@leeroyboy1]

Thank you sir for adding years to my life. Bladder cancer had metastasized to my liver in the form of a large tumor. I was dying. My body told me I was dying. I knew it, could feel it. Every day life was slipping away from me. Then came the Keytruda. I started feeling differently after the second treatment. At the first CT scan follow-up, the tumor had gone except for a few small tendrils.. THANK YOU SIR. I owe you my life and my families joy that I am going to live a while longer. Congratulations on your prize, you earned it over and over and over..... Sincerely, my best personal regards, Lee Rovik

[@dewakapoudel]

We hope one day we will permanent cure cancer ... Thanks Jim sir

[@DevilRoom360]

Thanks doc... you've saved/will save, many lives.

[@janiepeskin3352]

Congratulations and THANK YOU FOR SAVING MY LIFE💙💃💃💃 and My Family Thanks you also❤️❤️❤️

[@emilymaldonado8490]

A little late but congratulations!!!🎈🍾🎉

[@borisbash]

How does one say thank you on behalf of the world? Thanks mate.

[@slimeninja260]

Thank you doctor you have already save numerous lives. Including my husbands he has stage iv melanoma cancer and is on immunotherapy it has given us great hope. Thank you for your research dedication and effort. May the Almighty God of Heaven and Earth reward your works efforts intelligence you were born for such a time as this. With all my heart I want to say thank you very much.

[@randallsharpe1876]

Thank you for your time in the science community ❤️

[@lorilyndalulu]

Thank you Dr Allison. It was and honor to meet you at MDA in 2018 when I was there for my mastectomy surgery. My dear friend and bc warrior was with me when we fan-girled out and took pictures with you. 😂 You were so humble and kind to us. On behalf of all cancer patients out there I want to say thank you and God bless ❤🫶🙏

[@mdanderson]

Best wishes to you, Lorilyn.

[@christophersandmann]

I wonder if this man's deep humility is a marker for potential deep understanding in the way of one man saying, "I will cure cancer" verses the other begging, "I just want to understand."

[@hollywinkleRealestate]

Congratulations !! And Thank You !

[@mostafaob4540]

That’s awesome.. I hope one day I can work on that field and add something to it that can impact patients life

[@mannameditations]

He seems like a nice person....he so deserves this ❤️

[@saundarya1094]

Congratulations

[@theodoretshireletsomogwera7320]

Wow!

[@kausik1139]

GREATEST DISCOVERY TO STIMULATE BODY'S OWN DEFENSE IMMUNE CELLS TO ATTCK CANCER CELLS IS MAJOR MILE STONE.APPLIED TO PATIENTS IS SALUTORY.THE ENTIRE MEDICAL COMMUNITY AND PATIENTS BEING CURED MY HATS OFF TO JIM ALLISON A GREAT MIND UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF IMMUNOLOGY.hearty congratulations to jim allison and his family

[@marieholoub4084]

Congratulations and thank you so very much!!!!

[@mercedesfinkelstein9165]

Enjoy your success and relax if you can. Good for you!

[@pcequip]

I salute you Dr. Allison. You make me think that you are the second coming of another brilliant mind, Benjamin Franklin.

[@rohitpinjani8631]

Very good job sir

[@sophiemanolopoulos432]

Can this works on non hodgkins lymphoma

[@doylebeckmon424]

i BELIEVE THAT PEOPLE CAN DO GREAT THINGS WHEN THEY THINK FOR THEMSELVES,FOLLOW THEIR INTUITION AND EDUCATE THEMSELVES ABOUT THINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO THEM. CONGRATULATIONS AND THANK YOU FOR THE FUTURE YOU HAVE HELPED TO UNLOCK FOR THOSE WHO OTHERWISE MAY NOT HAVE .THANK YOU