In search of a cure for cancer, with Nobel laureate James Allison

With Meghna Chakrabarti

James Allison has received the Nobel Prize for his historical work on the immune system and cancer treatment. We will discuss with him and other senior researchers to find out where we are in the search for treatment.

Guests

James Allison, Director of the Department of Immunology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2018 for his work on cancer immunotherapy.

Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, president of the American Society for Clinical Oncology. Head of the Surgical Oncology Division of the Dana-Farber, Brigham and Women's Hospital Cancer Centers. Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. ()

From the reading list

New York Times: "The Nobel Prize in Medicine 2018 Awarded to Two Cancer Immunotherapy Researchers" – "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded Monday to James P. Allison of the United States and Tasuku Honjo of Japan. for their work to release the body's immune system to fight cancer, a breakthrough that led to a whole new class of drugs and brought lasting remissions to many patients who were short of options.

"Their success, which was obtained after many researchers gave up the idea," has brought out immunotherapy for decades of skepticism, "said Dr. Jedd Wolchok, cancer specialist at Memorial Sloan. Kettering Cancer Center in New York.This, he said, "leads to human applications that have affected countless people."

"Before the discoveries of Drs. Allison and Honjo, cancer treatment consisted of surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and hormonal treatments. A Nobel Committee statement hailed their achievements as establishing "an entirely new principle for the treatment of cancer".

NPR"What can cancer specialists learn from patients who have broken all the barriers?" – "Carol Martin is 67 years old and has advanced and inoperable pancreatic cancer.

"I have a particularly virulent form of this disease," she said. "I have squamous cell carcinoma, which means, according to my doctors, that the diagnosis of death is usually two months.

"This month of June is two years from my diagnosis. "

"Not only is Martin back to work as a research administrator at Harvard, but he's also finished this year's Boston Marathon against high winds and driving rain.

"We had headwinds, crosswinds, water running down the street," she said. "They had people who gave up like flies."

"But she did it. She quickly traveled the route and reached the finish line in just over seven and a half hours.

"Clearly, Martin is not an ordinary patient with pancreatic cancer in his response to treatment. But what is the key to his super medical powers?

"It's the kind of mystery that a project called Enigmatic Outstanding Stakeholder Network will attempt to solve."

Nature: "Reduce the cost of cancer treatment" – "The year 2011 was a turning point for cancer drugs in the United States. In five months, federal regulators have approved the first control point inhibitor immunotherapy, the first treatment of an aggressive form of thyroid cancer, the first personalized drug for melanoma of skin cancer, the first of an innovative class of targeted agents for lung cancer. and antibody therapy using weapons & # 39; to administer a drug to tumor cells in people with lymphoma.

"The power, complexity and innovative nature of these treatments have been remarkable. But that was the price. Each treatment costs more than $ 100,000 per person when taken for a year – a rarity at the time for oncology drugs.

"Doctors, patients and health care providers have seen prices fall. But quickly, they became normal. In 2014, the average cost of a new orally administered anti-cancer drug exceeded $ 135,000 per year, six times the cost of similar drugs approved in the early 2000s, after adjusting for the drug. inflation1. The year 2017 was marked by the most spectacular price in oncology: a one-time cost of $ 475,000 per patient for a personalized cellular treatment of childhood leukemia. "

Copyright NPR 2018.