title: The fascinating germ theories on cancer pathogenesis.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of History of Medicine, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tsoucalas
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Laios
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karamanou
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gennimata
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Androutsos
mesh_terms: D063646:Carcinogenesis; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000266:history* / Q000473:pathology; D009613:Nobel Prize