Two scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries that led to a new way to treat cancer.
Nobel officials announced that American James Allison and Japan’s Tasuku Honjo were winners of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. They will share a $1 million award that comes with the prize.
The two researchers discovered a way to help a person’s own immune system attack cancer in the body.
Both James Allison and Tasuku Honjo studied proteins that prevent the body and its main immune cells, known as T-cells, from attacking cancer cells. After years of study, the researchers discovered a way to use drugs that would allow the immune system to attack tumor cells.
Their discoveries led to greatly improved treatments for skin cancer, as well as cancers of the lungs, head, neck, kidneys and liver. These types of cancers can be very difficult to treat.
The new treatments represent “a landmark in our fight against cancer,” the Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said when announcing the winners.
Tasuku Honjo, a professor at Japan’s Kyoto University, said winning the prize was “a great honor.” Honjo said he hopes to keep working on the research in an effort to save more cancer patients.
ノーベル賞の主催者は、米国人のジェイムズ・アリソン氏と、日本の本庶佑（ほんじょう・たすく）氏を、2018年ノーベル医学生理学賞の受賞者として発表した。 両氏は賞と共に、賞金100万ドルを分け合う。
この2人の研究者は、人間の免疫システムを使って体内のガンと闘うのを助ける方法を発見した。
ジェイムズ・アリソン氏と本庶佑氏の両氏は、体やその主要な免疫細胞であるT細胞が、ガン細胞を攻撃するのを阻害するタンパク質の研究をおこなった。 何年もの研究の末、研究者らは免疫システムがガン細胞を攻撃するよう働きかけるための薬物の使用方法を発見した。
彼らの発見により、皮膚ガンの治療が大いに改善され、さらに肺、頭部、首、腎臓、肝臓のガンにも効果があった。 これらのガンの種類は、治療が極めて困難な場合がある。
Receiving the award was such an honor for me.
Receiving the award was such an honor for me.
