TMC PULSE

T M C » P U L S E | N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 8 20 The fourth pillar Now, Allison and his research collaborator and wife—MD Anderson oncologist Padmanee "Pam" Sharma, M.D., Ph.D.—plan to build on their accomplishments by using immunotherapy in tandem with tradi- tional treatment to increase response rates in patients. Allison said the melanoma data is especially encouraging. A study of almost 5,000 patients who had a single round of immunotherapy— four injections over three-week intervals—showed that 20 percent were alive 10 years after treatment. A combination of immunotherapy with a traditional treatment tripled 10-year survival to about 60 percent. "The good news is that we know it can be done in some patients," Allison said. "There's a lot of optimism, but still a ways to go. That's going to come from combining immunotherapy with conventional types of therapy." Though Allison has been mentioned as a contender for the Nobel for several years, he said he was shocked by an early-morning phone call on Oct. 1, 2018 from his son, Robert, an architect in Manhattan, telling him he had won the coveted prize. Allison and Sharma were in New York for an immunology meeting and, after the new laureate spoke to Nobel officials in Stockholm, the couple's hotel room filled with friends and colleagues bearing champagne. During a news conference later that day, Allison explained how his research has driven cancer treatment closer to a cure. "After many years of resistance, I think the cancer field has begun to accept immunotherapy now as the fourth pillar—along with radia- tion, surgery and chemotherapy—of cancer therapy. … Immunotherapy can be used in combination with the other three. I think that what we are looking forward to is combinations in the future—not just of multiple checkpoints, but of checkpoints with radiation, checkpoints with chemotherapy, checkpoints with genetically targeted small molecule drugs. It's not going to replace all those others, but it's going to be part of the therapy that essentially all cancer patients are going to be receiving in five years or so—and they're going to be curative in a lot of patients." Three bouts with cancer Allison is a cancer patient himself. "I am currently being treated for bladder cancer," the scientist said. "I'm doing great. One of the benefits of working in a cancer center is that it was picked up early and I get the best treatment. It's an old, crude [treatment] that's been around since the '60s. It's called BCG treatment. It's the use of bacteria in the bladder. They irritate it and that leads to an activation of the immune system. Nobody knows exactly how that particular one works even though it's been around for 50 years now." BCG is a germ placed directly into the bladder through a catheter. This is Allison's third bout with cancer. The first occurred more than a decade ago. "Pancreatic. It was caught early. I had surgery about 12 years ago. Then, a few years ago I had melanoma surgically removed from my nose," he said. Because Allison's research is targeted to more advanced cancers, he personally has not benefited from the immunotherapy he helped pioneer. Below: Supporters gathered inside MD Anderson to congratulate Allison on the Nobel.

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