2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the development of new cancer therapies with checkpoint inhibitors

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded to immunologists Allison and Honjo is another milestone in modern cancer therapy, which focuses on the body's self-healing powers. Back in 2011, three immunologists were honored for their work, which revolutionized our understanding of the immune system and opened up new ways of fighting cancer: Steinman described how dendritic cells work, while Hoffmann and Beutler discovered and described that successful immune defense requires danger signals. The IOZK's vaccine production and immunotherapy are based on these findings.

At the same time, for two years now, the IOZK has been able to use drugs that were the subject of basic research that won the current Nobel Prize in Medicine—they serve to protect tumor-specific immune cells that can attack tumor cells. The so-called checkpoint inhibitors improve the effects of our therapy at the IOZK, while at the same time we are creating the conditions for the effective use of these drugs. This is because checkpoint inhibitor antibody therapies have so far only helped a small proportion of patients, namely those who have already developed an immune response to the tumor cells. In certain cases, we can use checkpoint inhibitor antibodies to enable the tumor-specific activated immune system to successfully destroy the tumor cells.