Johannes Fibiger

Danish physician

  • Fame52.9
  • Momentum0.0
  • Wikipedia1.1K
Source-basedFalling
Lived 1867–1928, aged 61
DoctorsDoctor
  • Wikipedia
    58 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    1867–1928
    Aged 61
  • Awards
    3
    recognised works
Summary
Updated 2026-06-10

Johannes Fibiger won the 1926 Nobel Prize in Medicine for proving that a roundworm caused stomach cancer in rats — except it didn't. The tumours were vitamin A deficiency, the conclusion mistaken, and the prize later called "one of the biggest blunders" by the awarding institute itself.

Biography

About

Fibiger, a Danish physician and professor of anatomical pathology at the University of Copenhagen, found roundworms in wild rats in 1907 and suspected they caused the stomach cancers he observed. By 1913 he reported he could experimentally induce cancer in healthy rats using the parasite — a claim hailed at the time as "the greatest contribution to experimental medicine." He was passed over for the 1926 Nobel alongside another researcher, then retrospectively awarded it alone the following year. After his death in 1928, independent work dismantled the finding: the roundworm Gongylonema neoplas…

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Fame
Falling
52.9
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Historical22.0
Source confidence60.0
Completeness60.0
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Sources

  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence