GREAT SCIENTISTS

*GREAT SCIENTISTS*

“Thank you for saving my life."

Tomas Dahl (pictured left) was diagnosed with tonsil cancer and told there was no cure. But after trying the cancer therapy pioneered by 2018 Medicine Laureates James Allison and Tasuku Honjo (centre and right), he emerged cancer-free.

Dahl was one of several cancer patients who had the chance to share their story with the two Nobel Laureates at an emotional meeting in Stockholm, Sweden in December 2018. “Meeting the people who have benefitted from our research is the real prize for me,” said Allison. “When I meet patients who tell me: ‘You saved my life,' it is an unforgettable moment,” added Honjo.

After his diagnosis in January 2017, Dahl began convention cancer treatments – radiation, chemotherapy and surgery. No treatment worked. In February 2018, he was informed that there was nothing else that could be done. "I had a few months left to live,” says Dahl. "I explained to my kids that I would not make it."

In March, however, he began a new treatment: immunotherapy and – in his words – “was awarded the gift of life. The treatment had completely erased all cancer cells in my body.”

“There simply aren’t words to express the gratitude I feel,” he told Allison and Honjo. “I would not be here today if it wasn’t for you and your discovery.”

Allison and Honjo were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering a new cancer therapy which stimulates our immune system to attack tumour cells.

#NCSD2020