Editorial: Immune Checkpoint Molecules and Cancer Immunotherapy

On October 2nd, we experienced with great enthusiasm that the 2018 Nobel Prize in the Medicine and Physiology goes to the fathers of check-point molecules CTLA-4 and PD-1 James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo “for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation”. This Nobel Prize assignment was a great note for us as guest editors of the special issue “Immune Checkpoint Molecules and Cancer Immunotherapy.” Hence, this topic is not just in vogue but represents an enormous important field of translational cancer immunology. The discovery of the checkpoint molecules CTLA-4 and PD-1 stimulated pharma industry to develop specific inhibitors for cancer treatments, encouraging many scientists and clinicians to further explore this field.