James P. Allison
Discovered that blocking CTLA-4 unleashes T cells against cancer, the work behind ipilimumab and the 2018 Nobel Prize.
Immunologist whose 1990s work showing that CTLA-4 blockade causes tumour rejection in mice led to ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor. Shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Tasuku Honjo. Leads the Allison Institute and the immunotherapy platform at MD Anderson.
This paper launched the immunotherapy era. It was the first randomised evidence that taking a brake off the immune system could extend life in a solid cancer, and it introduced clinicians to immune-related adverse events and to responses that arrive late or after apparent progression. Ipilimumab alone has since been superseded by PD-1 antibodies and combinations, but every checkpoint programme traces back to this result.
Tumours hide from T cells by displaying PD-L1; blocking that interaction lets the immune system attack. This is the mechanism of pembrolizumab, nivolumab, atezolizumab and their relatives, which now treat more than 20 cancer types.
Every checkpoint inhibitor, from ipilimumab to pembrolizumab, rests on this idea: the immune system can already recognise cancer and just needs its brakes released. It changed the goal of immunotherapy from vaccinating against tumours to unleashing existing T cells.
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not linked directly; found by shared links- PersonPadmanee Sharma
Shares Leach, Krummel and Allison: releasing the CTLA-4 brake makes mice reject tumours, Hodi 2010: ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor, extends survival in metastatic melanoma, CTLA-4, MD Anderson Cancer Center.
- TrialKEYNOTE-006
Shares CTLA-4, Ipilimumab, PD-1, Melanoma.
- PersonF. Stephen Hodi
Shares Hodi 2010: ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor, extends survival in metastatic melanoma, CTLA-4, Ipilimumab, PD-1.
- InstitutionDartmouth Cancer Center
Shares CTLA-4, Ipilimumab, PD-1, Melanoma.
- Key paperASCO 2021 guideline: how to recognise and manage the immune-related side effects of checkpoint inhibitors
Shares Hodi 2010: ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor, extends survival in metastatic melanoma, CTLA-4, Ipilimumab, PD-1.
- TrialCheckMate 648
Shares CTLA-4, Ipilimumab, PD-1.
- TrialCheckMate 9DW
Shares CTLA-4, Ipilimumab, PD-1.
- Key paperCheckMate 067 at ten years: half of melanoma patients treated with nivolumab plus ipilimumab were alive a decade later
Shares Hodi 2010: ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor, extends survival in metastatic melanoma, CTLA-4, Ipilimumab, PD-1.