On Sept. 8, 2015, MD Anderson Cancer Center announced that Jim Allison, Ph.D., chair of Immunology received the nation’s highest honor for clinical medical research for inventing a completely new way to strike cancer by unlocking a shackled immune system attack.

Allison’s research into the biology of T cells, white blood cells that serve as the immune system’s customized guided weapons, led him to develop an antibody that blocks an off switch on those cells, unleashing an immune response against cancer. Drugs using this approach, called immune checkpoint blockade, now are approved for treating late-stage melanoma and lung cancer.  Hundreds of clinical trials worldwide are underway in earlier stages of the disease and against other cancers.

The first drug of this type, developed from Allison’s research, was the first treatment ever shown to extend the survival of patients with late-stage, untreatable melanoma.  Long-term studies show 20 percent of such patients treated with ipilimumab, marketed as Yervoy, survive for at least 10 years, previously unheard of results for the disease.

After an early career posting at MD Anderson, Allison returned in 2012 to lead its immunology department and establish the cancer immunotherapy platform, a combination of expertise and infrastructure that brings together scientists and clinicians to better understand and advance cancer immunotherapy.  

The platform is part of MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program, which is designed to harness scientific knowledge and develop new technologies that will dramatically reduce cancer deaths through prevention, early detection and treatment.