The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to two scientists, James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo for discovery of checkpoint molecules CTLA-4 and PD-1, which inhibit the T-cells of the im-mune system from attacking the cancerous tumours. They also discovered antibodies, which could be used for inhibiting the activity of these checkpoint molecules, thus relieving the T-cells from inhibitory activity of checkpoints, to be able to attack cancerous tumours. Such antibodies have already been converted into a number of immunotherapeutic drugs, which have been approved and are already being used for treatment of a variety of cancers.
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