Dr. Jim Allison, MD Anderson Cancer Center's chairman of immunology, has been awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize for pioneering research that has led to a new cancer treatment which allows the immune system to attack tumors.
Allison shares the prize with Tasuku Honjo of Japan's Kyoto University who conducted similar research.
Allison's work turned up certain drugs that unleash the immune system as a prime weapon against cancer. Some patients have seen lasting benefits in advanced cancers such as lung cancer and melanoma, some of which had been considered incurable.
This is just the fifth time a Nobel has been awarded in cancer research. Allison will be honored at the December Nobel ceremonies in Stockholm.
Previous Houston Nobel winners include Richard Smalley and Robert Curl of Rice University, Ferid Murad of the University of the Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the Houston Methodist Research Institute, and Roger Guillemin of Baylor College of Medicine.
PHOTO: MD Anderson Cancer Center