From revolutionary drugs to helping our immune system attack tumour cells, do you know which life-saving cancer therapies have been pioneered by Nobel Prize laureates?
In 1996 Charles Huggins was awarded the Nobel Prize for his research into prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is one of the more common forms of cancer, however in the first half of the 20th century it was not well-understood. Charles Huggins showed that the course of the disease can be affected by hormones and hormone treatment for prostate cancer quickly gained traction.
In 1988, Getrude Elion and George Hitchings were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine after developing a systematic method for producing drugs. One of the first drugs produced by the pair was for leukaemia and helped many children with the disease to survive. Just two years later, Donnall Thomas became a Nobel Prize laureate for his work on bone marrow transplantation for leukaemia..
More recently James Allison and Tasuku Honjo received the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for developing a completely new way of treating cancer - immunotherapy. Their work builds on decades of research into immunity, and uses the body’s own immune system to attack cancer cells.
Immunotherapy has revolutionised cancer treatment and now sits alongside chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, offering hope to cancer patients.
Nnenna
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