Cancerwise

When the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first immune checkpoint inhibitor, ipilimumab, for the treatment of advanced melanoma in 2011, cancer treatment changed forever.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a type of immunotherapy – a cancer treatment that does not target the cancer itself but trains the immune system to find and eliminate cancer cells.

Since the first therapy was approved, more than a dozen immune checkpoint inhibitors have been approved to treat roughly two dozen cancers, bringing lasting benefits and cures to many patients.

“We have seen incredible progress in the field in recent decades, which translates to so many lives saved,” says James P. Allison, Ph.D., Regental professor and chair of Immunology, vice president and founding director of the James P. Allison Institute™. “The conversation around treating cancer has changed, and we’re now working to make sure that we can bring these benefits to even more patients.”