Spiroptera carcinoma

Spiroptera carcinoma was the previous name of a nematode which was the basis of the research that won Johannes Fibiger the 1926 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

His research indicated that nematode infection led reliably to gastric tumors in rats, and this finding was one of the first demonstrations that an infection could be a carcinogen.

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

The worm is currently named "Gongylonema neoplasticum".

A similar parasite, Spirocerca lupi, can cause oesophageal cancer in dogs.