On October 3, 2011, the Nobel Committee announced that Steinman had received one-half of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for "his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity". The other half went to Bruce Beutler and Jules Hoffmann, for "their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity". However, the committee did not know that Steinman had died three days earlier, on September 30, from pancreatic cancer. The committee considered what to do about Steinman's prize, since the rule is that the prize is not awarded posthumously.