JBUON 2014; 19(1): 319-323 ISSN: 1107-0625, online ISSN: 2241-6293 • www.jbuon.com E-mail:
[email protected] HISTORY OF ONCOLOGY The fascinating germ theories on cancer pathogenesis G. Tsoucalas1, K. Laios1, M. Karamanou1, V. Gennimata2, G. Androutsos1 1Department of History of Medicine, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens; 2Department of Microbiology, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece Summary bel Prize in 1926 that was attributed to the Danish scientist Johannes Fibiger for his work on the nematode Spiroptera as a For more than 100 years, the germ theory of cancer, pro- causative agent in cancer. Even if those theories were the result posing that microorganisms were at the origin of the disease, of fantasy and misinterpretation, they paved the way for the dominated medicine. Several eminent scientists like Etienne scientific research in oncology. Burnet, Mikhail Stepanovich Voronin, Charles-Louis Mal- assez, and Francis-Peyton Rous argued on the pathogenesis presenting their theories that implicated cocci, fungi and par- Key words: carcinogenesis, germ theories, Johannes Fibiger, asites. The impact of these theories was culminated by the No- parasitic theory Introduction transmission was explained. It is long discussed for cancer that heredity is a legend that will vanish Apart from the exogenous, strange for today’s when contagion will be proved” [1]. medical world, misconceptions about cancer (can- cer villages, cancer houses, cancer countries, can- The germs of cancer: coccus and fungi cer races), the microbial theory of cancer held a significant place in the scientific community dur- Several scientists believed that cancerous ing the second half of the 19th century, similarly to germ had a preference for wetlands and could be tuberculosis during the previous decades.