(SOUNDBITE) (English) CHAIRMAN OF NOBEL COMMITTEE FOR PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE, PROFESSOR KLAS KARRE, SAYING: "The seminal discoveries by the two laureates constitutes a paradigmatic shift and a landmark in the fight against cancer." Game-changing discoveries in cancer treatment are at the centre of this year's Nobel medicine prize, with American James Allison and Japanese Tasuku Honjo honored Monday for their groundbreaking immunotherapy research.

In the 1990s, the scientists discovered how to harness and manipulate the immune system, which quickly led to significant changes, says Reuters Correspondent Ben Hirschler: (SOUNDBITE) (English) REUTERS CORRESPONDENT, BEN HIRSCHLER SAYING: "The discoveries that lead to this prize are already changing cancer treatment and they've lead to new classes of drugs that are transforming patients lives in lung cancer, bladder and kidney cancer and so on.

The million-dollar medicine prize is the first of the Nobels to be awarded.

2018 hasn't been easy for the Foundation which cancelled the Literaure Prize for the first time in decades, after the awarding body become embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal.

Also on Monday (October 1), the man at centre of it - Jean-Claude Arnault.

- was found guilty of rape.

The 72-year-old is married to a member of the Swedish Academy, which is now fighting to rebuild its reputation.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) REUTERS CORRESPONDENT, BEN HIRSCHLER SAYING: "Certainly, it will overshadow things to some extent, it is a different institution that awards the literature prize from the science prize, so there's some distance between them.

(FLASH) There's also always the option that the Nobel Foundation might choose a different institution to award the prizes in future if things don't change to their satisfaction."