Nobel prize for medicine won by cancer researchers – as it happened
Two immunologists, American James P Allison and Japanese Tasuku Honjo, win annual award for work on a new approach to cancer treatment
12.08pm BST
So there we have it. The 2018 medicine Nobel prize has gone to Tasuku Honjo at the University of Kyoto and James Allison at Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Their work on inhibiting the immune system to combat cancer is already considered transformative, but will doubtless prolong many more lives as therapies based on the breakthroughs are developed further. Tomorrow it's time for the Nobel prize in physics. We'll have live coverage of the announcement - due no earlier than 10.45am UK - from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Do join us if you can!
11.58am BST
Prof Dan Davis, an immunologist at the University of Manchester and author of The Beautiful Cure, which describes the work that led to today's prize, told my colleague Hannah Devlin:
I'm so thrilled that a Nobel has been awarded for this game-changing cancer therapy. It doesn't work for everyone but lives have been saved, and it has sparked a revolution in thinking about the many other ways in which the immune system can be harnessed or unleashed to fight cancer and other illnesses. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg - many more medicines like this are on the horizon.
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