Spiroptera carcinoma
Encyclopedia
Gongylonema neoplasticum is a species of nematode.

It was previously known as Spiroptera carcinoma. Under this name, it was the basis of the research that won Johannes Fibiger the 1926 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...

.

His research indicated that nematode infection led reliably to gastric tumors in rats
RATS
RATS may refer to:* RATS , Regression Analysis of Time Series, a statistical package* Rough Auditing Tool for Security, a computer program...

, and this finding was one of the first demonstrations that an infection
Infection
An infection is the colonization of a host organism by parasite species. Infecting parasites seek to use the host's resources to reproduce, often resulting in disease...

 could be a carcinogen
Carcinogen
A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that is an agent directly involved in causing cancer. This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes...

.

His work was later reappraised, and current consensus is that while the worms stimulated previously damaged cells to form tumors, the worms themselves were not carcinogenic to healthy cells.

It has also been known as "spiroptera neoplasticum".

A similar parasite, Spirocerca lupi
Spirocerca lupi
Spirocerca lupi is a species of nematode. In dogs, infestation can cause osteosarcoma of the esophagus. Doramectin has been used against it....

, can cause oesophageal cancer in dogs.

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