Overview

Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger (1867-1928), Danish physician, pathologist, and bacteriologist, was awarded the 1926 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his research on the etiology of cancer and for his discovery of a parasite that he claimed was the cause of cancer. Fibiger called the parasite, which was a nematode worm, Spiroptera carcinoma, or Spiroptera neoplastica. The organism is now regarded as a member of the genus Gongylonema. Although Fibiger's work seemed to show that nematodes caused carcinoma in rodents, other researchers were unable to confirm his results. Unfortunately, the great hope expressed in the 1920s that Fibiger's research would lead to a practical solution...