The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to scientists who discovered how cancer can be treated by targeting the immune system.

Cancer cells feature mutations that mean they can be recognised by our immune systems as foreign. But immune reactions against cancer are usually very weak.

James Allison and Tasuku Honjo, working separately, discovered proteins that act as a brake on the immune system. They later found that that releasing these brakes would allow the immune system to attack cancer cells.

Many drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors have since been developed based on this principle. Immunotherapy is seen as one of the most promising frontiers in cancer research.

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