The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to many individuals whose research directly impacted the understanding of cancer:
- In 2008 to Harald zur Hausen, for his discovery of human papillomavirus causing cervical cancer
- In 2005 to J. Robin Warren and Barry J. Marshall, for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease
- In 1990 to Joseph E. Murray and E. Donnall Thomas, for their discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease
- In 1989 to Harold E. Varmus, and J. Michael Bishop for their discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes
- In 1975 to Howard Martin Temin, Renato Dulbecco, and David Baltimore for their
discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the cell - In 1966 to Charles Brenton Huggins, for his discoveries concerning hormonal treatment of prostatic cancer
- In 1966 to Peyton Rous, for his discovery of tumour-inducing viruses
- In 1962 to Francis Harry Compton Crick, James Dewey Watson, and Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins, for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material
- In 1926 to Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger, for his discovery of the Spiroptera carcinoma
