Yamagiwa Katsusaburō

Yamagiwa Katsusaburō
山極 勝三郎

Yamagiwa Katsusaburō
Born (1863-02-23)23 February 1863
Ueda, Shinano Province, now Nagano Prefecture
Died 2 March 1930(1930-03-02) (aged 67)
Tokyo, Japan
Nationality Japanese
Fields Pathology
Institutions Tokyo Imperial University
Alma mater Tokyo Imperial University
Known for Chemical carcinogenesis
Notable awards Japan Academy Prize, 1919

Yamagiwa Katsusaburō (山極 勝三郎, 23 February 1863 - 2 March 1930) was a Japanese pathologist who carried out pioneering work into the causes of cancer.[1][2] He was the first to prove chemical carcinogenesis.[3]

He was the Nobel Prize Nominee in 7 nominations.[4]

Life

Yamagiwa was born in Ueda, Nagano, the third son of the feudal retainer of the Ueda Domain in Shinano Province. He became the adopted son-in-law of Yoshiya Yamagiwa, a physician in Katsuya, Tokyo, and took the surname Yamagiwa. He completed his MD in 1888 from Imperial University of Tokyo. He was appointed as a professor at the Medical School, Imperial University of Tokyo and published his landmark work, Byōri Sōron Kōgi, in 1895.[2][5]

Yamagiwa did all he could for the promotion of cancer research in Japan. In 1907 Cancer Science, peer-reviewed medical journal covering research in oncology, was first issued by him. In addition, he and his colleagues found the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research in 1908.

He died in Tokyo of pneumonia in 1930 at the age of 67.[1][5]

Contribution

In a series of experiments conducted in 1915, Yamagiwa and his assistant Kōichi Ichikawa (1888 – 1948) induced squamous cell carcinomas on the ears of rabbits using coal tar, demonstrating the latter's carcinogenic properties.

Missed out on Nobel Prize

The 1926 Nobel Prize went to Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger, for his discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma, a microbial parasite which Fibiger claimed was the cause of cancer. This "finding" was discredited by other scientists shortly thereafter.[6][7][8][9][10] Two years later, Katsusaburo Yamagiwa successfully induced squamous cell carcinoma by painting crude coal tar on the inner surface of rabbits' ears. Yamagiwa's work has become the primary basis for this line of research.[11] Because of this, some people consider Fibiger's Nobel Prize to be undeserved, particularly because Yamagiwa never received the prize for his work.[12]

In Japan, some documents pointed out to the Nobel committee claim that they made an error due to their white supremacy beliefs.[13][14] In 1966, the former committee member Folke Henschen strongly advocated that Dr. Yamagiwa deserved the Nobel Prize, but unfortunately it was not realised.[15]

Recognition

Yamagiwa and Ichikawa shared the Japan Academy Prize in 1919 for their work.

Encyclopædia Britannica's guide to Nobel Prizes in cancer research mentions Yamagiwa's work as a milestone, without mentioning Fibiger.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 "Katsusaburō Yamagiwa". Encyclopedia of Japan. Tokyo: Shogakukan. 2012. OCLC 56431036. Retrieved 2012-11-08.
  2. 1 2 "山極 勝三郎" [Katsusaburō Yamagiwa]. Nihon Jinmei Daijiten (in Japanese). Tokyo: Shogakukan. 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-08.
  3. ↑ Fujiki, H (2014). "Gist of Dr. Katsusaburo Yamagiwa's papers entitled "Experimental study on the pathogenesis of epithelial tumors" (I to VI reports)". Cancer Science. 105 (2): 143–9. PMID 24313817. doi:10.1111/cas.12333.
  4. ↑ Katsusaburo Yamagiwa - Nomination Database
  5. 1 2 "山極 勝三郎" [Yamagiwa Katsusaburō]. Nihon Daihyakka Zensho (Nipponika) (in Japanese). Tokyo: Shogakukan. 2012. OCLC 153301537. Retrieved 2012-11-08.
  6. ↑ Clemmesen J (1978). "Johannes Fibiger. Gongylonema and vitamin A in carcinogenesis". Acta Pathol Microbiol Scand Suppl. (270): 1–13. PMID 362817.
  7. ↑ Stolley PD, Lasky T (1992). "Johannes Fibiger and his Nobel Prize for the hypothesis that a worm causes stomach cancer". Ann Intern Med. 116 (9): 765–769. PMID 1558350. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-116-9-765.
  8. ↑ Petithory JC, Théodoridès J, Brumpt L (1997). "A challenged Nobel Prize: Johannes Fibiger, 1926". Hist Sci Med. 31 (1): 87–95. PMID 11625107.
  9. ↑ I.M. Modlin; M. Kidd; T. Hinoue (2001). "Of Fibiger and fables: a cautionary tale of cockroaches and Helicobacter pylori". J Clin Gastroenterol. 33 (3): 177–179. PMID 11500602. doi:10.1097/00004836-200109000-00001.
  10. ↑ Stolt CM, Klein G, Jansson AT (2004). "An analysis of a wrong Nobel Prize-Johannes Fibiger, 1926: a study in the Nobel archives". Adv Cancer Res. Advances in Cancer Research. 92 (1): 1–12. ISBN 9780120066926. PMID 15530554. doi:10.1016/S0065-230X(04)92001-5.
  11. ↑ "Katsusaburo Yamagiwa (1863–1930)". CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. 27 (3): 172. 1977. doi:10.3322/canjclin.27.3.172. Yamagiwa, then Director of the Department of Pathology at Tokyo Imperial University Medical School, had theorized that repetition or continuation of chronic irritation caused precancerous alterations in previously normal epithelium. If the irritant continued its action, carcinoma could result. These data, publicly presented at a special meeting of the Tokyo Medical Society and reprinted below, focused attention on chemical carcinogenesis. Further more, his experimental method provided researchers with a means of producing cancer in the laboratory and anticipated investigation of specific carcinogenic agents and the precise way in which they acted. Within a decade, Keller and associates extracted a highly potent carcinogenic hydrocarbon from coal tar. Dr. Yamagiwa had begun a new era in cancer research.
  12. ↑ James R. Bartholomew. "Katsusaburo Yamagiwa’s Nobel candidacy: Physiology or medicine in the 1920s". explores the candidacy of Yamagiwa, who had developed the world’s first efficient method for producing cancer artificially in the laboratory by swabbing coal tar on rabbits’ ears, which had stimulated activity among cancer researchers worldwide. Johannes Fibiger of Denmark, who discovered how to use parasites to cause cancer in rats two years before Yamagiwa’s achievement, received the prize, probably because nominations were often greatly influenced by acquaintanceship, geography, and the marginalization that distance from other centers imposed on the Japanese.
  13. ↑ 朝日新聞社編　『100人の20世紀(上)』　朝日文庫　p237-「山極勝三郎」
  14. ↑ 福田眞人、「北里柴三郎：内務省衛生局時代とドイツ留学への道」21頁。ただし、この文章においてはこの内容の出典が明確に記されていない。
  15. ↑ 「『ガンの山極博士』たたえる」読売新聞1966年10月25日15頁。
  16. ↑ Guide to Nobel Prize. Britannica.com. Retrieved on 25 September 2010.
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