Japanese scientist Tasuku Honjo received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine at a ceremony Monday in Stockholm, for his discovery of a protein on immune cells that paved the way for a new approach to cancer treatment.

After accepting the medal and diploma from Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf at the ceremony, which he attended with his wife, Shigeko, the 76-year-old Kyoto native said he hopes the immunotherapeutic treatment will become available for people around the world. The distinguished professor and deputy director-general of the Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study shared the prize with James Allison, a professor at the University of Texas, who studied a known protein that works as a brake on the immune system.

"We sincerely hope this treatment will reach far and wide so that everybody on our planet can benefit from this evolutionary gift for healthy life," Honjo said in his speech at the lavish Nobel Banquet, attended by some 1,300 people, after the award ceremony.