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Jim Allison Won a Nobel Prize for His Cancer Immunotherapy Breakthrough (2018)

77 points by Osiris30 7y ago

randcraw 7y ago
Article is dated 22 Oct 2018.
- fatjokes 7y ago
  Was going to say. Nobel Prizes are awarded in the fall.
vmurthy 7y ago
I read the article and it’s a great read. Nature never ceases to amaze us I guess. Cancer hijacking the body’s safety mechanisms is a scary scary thought. The title is misleading,though.
tomhoward 7y ago
Another article about this posted/discussed a few months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19535119 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19535119
- ncmncm 7y ago
  I missed it at the time, so I am glad it was posted again. Sayin'.
- adenadel 7y ago
  The HN community often misses new posts. I actually posted this article from Wired just 4 days ago. :)
j7ake 7y ago
Jim Allison winning the Nobel prize was predicted by Hans Clevers back in summer of 2015: "We used to think that the development of cancer had nothing to do with our immune system since, after all, cancer is formed from the body's own cells. But now we know better. Tumours have found the switch to disable our immune system – that much is clear. So we need to protect that switch. One researcher, Jim Allison – who in my opinion is worthy of a Nobel Prize – has discovered that it is possible, in theory. A test involving melanoma patients revealed that 15 per cent of them were still cancer-free after six years. We are now investigating how various so-called 'checkpoint regulators' interfere with our immune response during the development of tumours and what we can do to counter this. When does our immune response fail? Is there more than one on/off switch?" https://www.uu.nl/en/research/hans-clevers-erc-advanced-grant https://www.uu.nl/en/research/hans-clevers-erc-advanced-gran...
puzzledobserver 7y ago
Is there an enthusiast or popular science-level treatment of how (human and non-human) immune systems work? I am a computer scientist, years removed from my last biology course, but I am curious. Ideally, I would like to know: What is understood, and what is not? And which parts of this understanding rest on dogma (not as a pejorative)? The whole array of immune system phenomena is very intriguing. It seems to span everything from physical responses like fever and inflammation to cellular and molecular mechanisms. Acquired immunity and vaccines (which curiously seem to fulfill some of homeopathy's promises, but from more rational guiding principles), viruses, HIV, and cancer somehow also figure in all of this.

77 points by Osiris30 7y ago

randcraw 7y ago

Article is dated 22 Oct 2018.

fatjokes 7y ago
Was going to say. Nobel Prizes are awarded in the fall.

vmurthy 7y ago

I read the article and it’s a great read. Nature never ceases to amaze us I guess. Cancer hijacking the body’s safety mechanisms is a scary scary thought. The title is misleading,though.

tomhoward 7y ago

Another article about this posted/discussed a few months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19535119 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19535119

ncmncm 7y ago
I missed it at the time, so I am glad it was posted again. Sayin'.
adenadel 7y ago
The HN community often misses new posts. I actually posted this article from Wired just 4 days ago. :)

j7ake 7y ago

Jim Allison winning the Nobel prize was predicted by Hans Clevers back in summer of 2015: "We used to think that the development of cancer had nothing to do with our immune system since, after all, cancer is formed from the body's own cells. But now we know better. Tumours have found the switch to disable our immune system – that much is clear. So we need to protect that switch. One researcher, Jim Allison – who in my opinion is worthy of a Nobel Prize – has discovered that it is possible, in theory. A test involving melanoma patients revealed that 15 per cent of them were still cancer-free after six years. We are now investigating how various so-called 'checkpoint regulators' interfere with our immune response during the development of tumours and what we can do to counter this. When does our immune response fail? Is there more than one on/off switch?" https://www.uu.nl/en/research/hans-clevers-erc-advanced-grant https://www.uu.nl/en/research/hans-clevers-erc-advanced-gran...

puzzledobserver 7y ago

Is there an enthusiast or popular science-level treatment of how (human and non-human) immune systems work? I am a computer scientist, years removed from my last biology course, but I am curious. Ideally, I would like to know: What is understood, and what is not? And which parts of this understanding rest on dogma (not as a pejorative)? The whole array of immune system phenomena is very intriguing. It seems to span everything from physical responses like fever and inflammation to cellular and molecular mechanisms. Acquired immunity and vaccines (which curiously seem to fulfill some of homeopathy's promises, but from more rational guiding principles), viruses, HIV, and cancer somehow also figure in all of this.