1898

Discovery of Radiation Therapy

Physicists Marie and Pierre Curie discover a chemical element known as radium, which is later shown to be an effective treatment for cancer in small doses. This discovery continues to serve as the basis of modern radiation treatment used today.

1956

First Successful Bone Marrow Transplant on a Leukemia Patient

E. Donnall Thomas, who would come to be known as the “Father of Bone Marrow Transplantation,” performs the first successful allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in a leukemia patient by harvesting bone marrow from a healthy twin for the twin who had leukemia. In 1990, Dr. Thomas would be awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for this and subsequent work.

1975

Creation of Monoclonal Antibodies 

César Milstein and Georges Köhler publish a report in Nature describing how they successfully produced large amounts of monoclonal antibodies targeted to recognize the same antigen. This method would revolutionize the treatment landscape and pave the way for a vast number of clinical and research applications.

1987

HER-2 Gene Shown to be Amplified in Breast Cancer 

Cancer researchers discover that the growth receptor gene HER-2 is present at high levels in approximately 30 percent of breast cancers. Dr. Dennis Slamon and his team discover that blocking HER-2 through a specific antibody could slow the growth of metastatic breast cancer cells and other types of cancer in a laboratory dish.

1992

PD-1 Immune Checkpoint Receptor Discovered

Tasuku Honjo and his team of researchers at Kyoto University discover the PD-1 immune checkpoint receptor and its role in programmed cell death, helping researchers better understand its function in the immune system.

Stem Cell Research Paves the Way for Understanding Disease Biology

Irving Weissman and his research team trace the cellular development pathway from stem cells to mature blood and immune cells in humans, while identifying the steps where the process may go awry in many blood diseases and related cancers.

1996

Preclinical Activity of Immune Checkpoint Inhibition Demonstrated

University of California-Berkeley scientists Dana R. Leach, Matthew F. Krummel and James P. Allison publish the first study showing it’s possible to release the brakes on a specific molecule that protects cancer from detection by the immune system. They provide the first evidence that blocking the immune checkpoint CTLA-4 may allow the body to increase the immune response against tumor cells.

1998

First Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Clinical Trial

Biochemist Nicholas Lyndon develops the first tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Tyrosine kinases are important mediators of biological processes and the deregulation of protein kinase activity is discovered to play a central role in the development of cancer. This research leads to a deep understanding of disease biology, including the role of the BCR-ABL fusion gene and Philadelphia chromosome in the development of leukemia. 

The first tyrosine kinase inhibitor is approved by the FDA in 2001 and is nicknamed the “magic bullet” as a result of its impact on the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia.

Clinical Trials See Success Targeting HER-2

Phase 3 trials of a HER-2-specific antibody have positive results in slowing the growth of breast cancer and early-stage HER-2 positive metastatic breast cancer.

2001

First Molecularly Targeted Treatment Approved

The FDA approves the first molecularly targeted drug for the treatment of patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia.

2003

The Human Genome Project Concludes

The Human Genome Project, the world’s largest collaborative biological project, concludes its 13-year program determining the sequence of chemical base pairs that make up human DNA and mapping the human genome. This research continues to help scientists identify genetic changes and malfunctions that contribute to cancer.

FDA Approves First Proteasome Inhibitor

The FDA approved the first proteasome inhibitor for patients with multiple myeloma. This approval helped spur research into other applications of proteasome inhibitors, including inhibitors against specific E3 ligases, which act at an early step in the ubiquitin proteasome system, known to play a fundamental role in protein degradation.

2005

The Cancer Genome Atlas Launches

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), a collaboration between the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), is initiated to map out key genomic changes in 33 different tumor types. Over the course of 12 years, the project generates more than 2.5 petabytes of data which benefits thousands of researchers in the fight against cancer.

2012

CAR-T Therapy Shows Promise in Cancer Treatment

Emma Whitehead, a six-year-old with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, receives an experimental treatment that used a disabled form of the HIV virus to reset the immune system to kill cancer cells genetically. The successful treatment helped to launch the explosion of CAR-T development. 

2014

First Approved PD-1 Inhibitors

Following the approval of the first anti-CTLA-4 therapy three years earlier, the first anti-PD-1 therapies are approved by the FDA. Today, there are five FDA-approved anti-PD-1 (or anti-PD-L1) therapies approved to treat patients.

First Approved Bi-Specific T-Cell Engager

In December 2014, the FDA approves the first bi-specific T-cell engager for Philadelphia chromosome-negative relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia in adults and children.

2017

FDA Approves First Therapy Based on Tumor Agnostic Genetic Information

The FDA approves the first therapy based on a patient’s tumor’s genetic information, rather than the type or location of the tumor within the body.

FDA Approves First CAR-T Therapy 

The first CAR-T therapy is approved in 2017 for the treatment of young adult and pediatric patients with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia.