page_title: Timeline of peptic ulcer disease and Helicobacter pylori
section_title: 1950–1970
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of peptic ulcer disease and Helicobacter pylori / 1950–1970
context_page_description: This is a timeline of the events relating to the discovery that peptic ulcer disease and some cancers are caused by H. pylori. In 2005, Barry Marshall and Robin Warren were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery that peptic ulcer disease was primarily caused by Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium with affinity for acidic environments, such as the stomach. As a result, PUD that is associated with H. pylori is currently treated with antibiotics used to eradicate the infection. For decades prior to their discovery, it was widely believed that PUD was caused by excess acid in the stomach. During this time, acid control was the primary method of treatment for PUD, to only partial success. Among other effects, it is now known that acid suppression alters the stomach milieu to make it less amenable to H. pylori infection.
context_section_description: 1951
  J. Allende publishes a book describing the treatment of gastric ulcers with penicillin.
  1953
  Dintzis and Hastings are able to stop urease production in mice with antibiotics, suggesting a relationship between urease and a bacterial infection.
  1954
  Palmer publishes a study which finds no bacteria in the human stomach. He concludes earlier discoveries were a result of contamination. Unfortunately, he chooses not to use a silver staining method, which will be later used to reveal H. pylori by Warren and Marshall.
  1955
  Tarnopolskaya observes that penicillin seems to cure some peptic ulcers.
  Moutier and Cornet suggest treating gastritis with antibiotics.
  Kornberg and Davies observe that antibiotics reduce urease in cats.
  1957
  Charles Lieber and Andre Lefèvre discover that antibiotics reduce gastric urea to ammonia conversion.
  1958
  Gordon observes that penicillin cures some peptic ulcers.
  John Lykoudis successfully treats his own gastroenteritis with antibiotics.
  Lieber and Lefèvre present their results at the World Congress of Gastroenterology in Washington. It is not well received because of the widespread belief that bacteria cannot survive in the human stomach, due to Palmer.
  1959
  Lieber and Lefèvre publish a follow-up study demonstrating that antibiotics prevent the conversion of urea to ammonia in the human stomach.
  Conway et al. call into question the extent of urease produced by bacteria in mice, as an argument against the bacterial theory of PUD.
  1960
  Vital and Orrego observe Campylobacter-like organisms in the stomachs of cats and dogs.
  Lykoudis is awarded a Greek patent (#22,453) for his antibiotic treatment of PUD.
  1962
  Susser and Stein publish a paper identifying a cohort phenomenon of PUD in England. This is taken as evidence for stress causing PUD.
  1964
  Lykoudis presents his antibiotic treatment for PUD at a meeting of the Medico-Surgical Society in Greece. He is largely shunned by the medical establishment.
  1966
  Lykoudis' manuscript is rejected by the Journal of the American Medical Association.
  1967
  Susumu Ito describes Campylobacter-like organisms attached to a gastric epithelial cell.
  1968
  Lykoudis is fined 4,000 drachmas for treating PUD patients with his treatment, which includes antibiotics.
caption: Ammonia
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