The fascinating germ theories on cancer pathogenesis

For more than 100 years, the germ theory of cancer, proposing that microorganisms were at the origin of the disease, dominated medicine. Several eminent scientists like Etienne Burnet, Mikhail Stepanovich Voronin, Charles-Louis Malassez, and Francis-Peyton Rous argued on the pathogenesis presenting...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of B.U. ON. Vol. 19; no. 1; p. 319
Main Authors Tsoucalas, G, Laios, K, Karamanou, M, Gennimata, V, Androutsos, G
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Greece 01.01.2014
Subjects
Carcinogenesis
Germ Cells - pathology
History, 19th Century
History, 20th Century
Humans
Neoplasms - genetics
Neoplasms - history
Neoplasms - pathology
Nobel Prize
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Summary:For more than 100 years, the germ theory of cancer, proposing that microorganisms were at the origin of the disease, dominated medicine. Several eminent scientists like Etienne Burnet, Mikhail Stepanovich Voronin, Charles-Louis Malassez, and Francis-Peyton Rous argued on the pathogenesis presenting their theories that implicated cocci, fungi and parasites. The impact of these theories was culminated by the Nobel Prize in 1926 that was attributed to the Danish scientist Johannes Fibiger for his work on the nematode Spiroptera as a causative agent in cancer. Even if those theories were the result of fantasy and misinterpretation, they paved the way for the scientific research in oncology.
ISSN:1107-0625