Christian Blank (The Netherlands Cancer Institute, The Netherlands) took the audience on a historical journey from the 1890s and the ‘fathers’ of the tumor immunology concept to the early 2000s, covering the theory of immune-surveillance, the start of clinical trials with anti-‘cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4’ (CTLA-4) molecules and improved survival of patients with metastatic melanoma with ipilimumab. The gene discussed is CTLA4; the disease is metastatic melanoma.