Episode 26: Coming Full Circle

The award of this year's Nobel prize in physiology or medicine to Dr Jim Allison and Dr Tasuku Honjo is a defining moment for cancer research that we want to recognize. You'll hear from Dr Allison on the very day he heard the announcement. We also take a closer look at what it takes to be a great scientist and explore the limitations on how many people the Nobel prize can recognize in a given year. If you want to increase your chance of winning, 1993 laureate Sir Richard Roberts FRS takes us through his "Ten Simple Rules to Win a Nobel Prize." We have come full circle in our journey over the last 3.5 years and now hear the results of a "practice changing" phase 3 cancer immunotherapy trial in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) that we first talked about in the inaugural episode of the podcast, "The Checkpoints Show." There's also an update from the recent ESMO congress on results from a phase 3 ovarian cancer trial that is potentially "life changing" for women with a BRCA mutation.  Scientists and clinical researchers you'll hear on this episode include a rich diversity of viewpoints and perspectives: Sir Richard Roberts FRS, Dr James Allison, Dr Phil Greenberg, Dr Ignacio Melero, Dr Pasi Jänne, Dr Tony Mok, Dr Kathleen Moore, Dr Leisha Emens, Dr Sherene Loi, Dr Peter Schmid, Dr Dan Chen and Dr Ira Mellman. Several of the interviews were recorded at the 2018 CRI CIMT EATI AACR international cancer immunotherapy conference (CICON) in New York, 2018 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Munich and the 2018 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) annual meeting in Washington DC. This episode was sponsored by Genentech, we're grateful for their support. You can find more information about this episode and links to additional information in the show notes on https://noveltargets.com