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Portrait of Stanley Cohen
Photo: Unknown author, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1986/cohen/facts/ · Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine · 1986

Stanley Cohen

He found EGF, the signal that tells skin cells to grow, and its receptor, now the target of drugs for lung and bowel cancer.

The Nobel citation: “for their discoveries of growth factors”
Born
November 17, 1922, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Died
February 5, 2020, Nashville, TN, USA
Affiliation at the time
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, USA

Medicine prize

1986

Shared with 1 other laureate.

Age that year

64years

Born in 1922.

Headline credited impact

115,000–235,000people benefited

People with EGFR-mutant lung cancer treated with EGFR-blocking pills, 2003-2025. How it was built

Sources cited

25

Fact-checked September 24, 2026.

  • His big clue came from newborn mice that opened their eyes at 6 to 7 days old instead of the usual 12 to 14, after he injected them with a gland extract.
  • For his PhD on earthworm metabolism he spent nights collecting more than 5,000 worms from the University of Michigan campus.
  • The son of a Russian Jewish tailor, he said his parents could never have paid for college. Brooklyn College charged no tuition.
  • The EGF receptor he found is the target of lung cancer pills. In a major trial, patients on the newest one lived a median 38.6 months.
  • A childhood polio survivor whose legs never fully recovered, he played tennis and the clarinet, and kept his lab small even after the Nobel.

The breakthrough

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) and how its receptor passes the signal into a cell

In the 1950s Cohen was purifying nerve growth factor with Rita Levi-Montalcini, using extracts of mouse salivary glands. When he injected those extracts into newborn mice, something odd happened. The pups opened their eyes about a week early, and their teeth seemed to come in early too. Cohen guessed that a second substance in the gland was causing this. At Vanderbilt he isolated it, reporting it in 1962, and soon named it epidermal growth factor, or EGF, because it made skin cells multiply. He then worked out its full chemical makeup. EGF is a small protein, 53 building blocks long. In 1975 his lab, with Graham Carpenter, measured how EGF latches onto special receptors on the surface of human cells. Around 1980 they showed that when EGF docks, the receptor itself switches on. It sticks phosphate tags onto a building block called tyrosine, and that starts a chain of signals telling the cell to grow and divide. Think of EGF as a finger pressing a doorbell. The receptor is the bell, and the tagging is the ring that sets the whole house moving. The same kind of receptor switch turned out to drive many other growth signals. In some cancers the bell is stuck in the ringing position, and cells keep dividing. That made the EGF receptor a target for cancer drugs.[3],[4],[8],[10],[11],[12],[13]

“Brooklyn College was a city school and had a policy of no tuition; the cost of an education would have been prohibitive for my parents.”
Stanley Cohen, From the autobiography Cohen wrote for the Nobel Foundation in 1986, on how he was able to go to college.[2]

What it meant for humanity

Cohen's work answered a basic question: how does a cell know when to grow? Before EGF, scientists knew that blood and tissue extracts helped cells grow in a dish, but not which substances did it. EGF and nerve growth factor were the first growth factors to be purified and studied in detail. The Nobel Assembly said every group that later found a new growth factor followed their lead. His finding that the EGF receptor works by tagging tyrosine helped show how a signal outside a cell reaches the inside. This pathway now fills chapters of biology textbooks. It also changed cancer medicine. In 1986 the Nobel Assembly already predicted that blocking EGF or its receptor might treat some tumours. Drug makers built on that idea. Gefitinib, the first pill to block the EGF receptor, was approved in the US in 2003. Many more followed for lung cancer, along with antibody drugs such as cetuximab for bowel and head and neck cancers. The pills work best when a patient's tumour carries changes in the EGFR gene. Such changes are found in about 38% of lung cancers of the common type in China and about 14% in Europe. In one major trial, patients with these changes who took the newest pill lived a median 38.6 months. With chemotherapy, median survival in advanced lung cancer had been about 10 to 12 months, although those figures cover all patients, not only those with EGFR changes. These drugs rarely cure advanced cancer, but they give many patients extra years and a better quality of life. EGF itself, made by genetic engineering, is also injected into hard-to-heal diabetic foot ulcers in Cuba and other countries.

  • EGF was one of the first two growth factors to be discovered and characterized. The Nobel Assembly said later growth factor hunters all followed in Cohen's and Levi-Montalcini's tracks.[4]
  • His lab measured how EGF binds its receptor, purified the receptor, and showed that EGF switches on its tyrosine-tagging activity, a signalling route later found to be shared by many growth factors.[3],[4],[11],[12],[13]
  • Drugs that block the EGF receptor, from gefitinib (US approval 2003) to osimertinib, are a mainstay of treatment for EGFR-mutant lung cancer. Cetuximab treats colorectal cancer.[7],[15],[24]
  • In a major trial, people with EGFR-mutant lung cancer on the newest EGFR pill lived a median 38.6 months. A review notes chemotherapy gave about 10 to 12 months in advanced lung cancer generally.[15]
  • A Cuban-made recombinant human EGF, developed in Havana in the 1990s, is injected into chronic diabetic foot ulcers. Small trials and reviews report faster healing and fewer amputations.[21],[22]

Impact in numbers

Cohen's lasting gift is a piece of basic knowledge: how a growth signal outside a cell gets inside and tells it to divide. EGF and its receptor became a model for a whole family of receptors that work the same way, and much of modern cell-signalling biology grew from it. The clearest practical result is a group of cancer drugs that block the EGF receptor, especially pills for EGFR-mutant lung cancer. We give one cautious estimate of patients treated with those pills and credit Cohen with only a small share of it, because receptor cloning, the discovery of the cancer mutations and the drug chemistry were others' essential work. We make no claim for antibody drugs such as cetuximab, or for EGF wound treatments, which lack reliable global counts. The drugs mostly extend life rather than cure, and they carry rare but serious lung risks.

HealthFundamental science

Each number is the laureate’s credited share of a real-world outcome, cumulative to 2025. The whole outcome, the share of credit, and the reasoning are shown so you can check the arithmetic. Outcomes shared with other laureates are counted once on the impact page.

  • Low confidenceRippleModeledHealth

    People with EGFR-mutant lung cancer treated with EGFR-blocking pills, 2003-2025

    115,000–235,000

    people benefited, credited share

    That is 5% of 2.3–4.7 million people benefited since 2003.

    How this number was built

    Only lung cancer pills (gefitinib, US 2003, and successors); antibody drugs excluded, so a floor. 2022: about 2.5M lung cancers (WHO/IARC), 85% NSCLC. China 1,060,600 x 0.85 x 38.4% EGFR-mutant = 346,000; rest 1,439,400 x 0.85 x 14.1% (Europe) to 20% = 173,000-245,000; total 519,000-591,000 a year. Assumed 30% (low) or 50% (high) get a pill, since many are cured by surgery or never tested: 156,000-295,000 a year, reached by a linear ramp from 2004 to 2018 (low, 15 x annual) or 2016 (high, 16 x annual), then flat to 2025 = 2.3M-4.7M. Counts people treated, not lives saved. Share 0.05: Cohen found EGF, its receptor and its tyrosine kinase, the drugs' target; receptor cloning, the erbB link, the 2004 mutation finding and drug design were others' essential work. Credited: about 115,000-235,000.[4],[12],[15],[16],[17],[18],[24]

    Sources: Chinese Medical Journal (via PubMed Central); Oncotarget (via PubMed Central); Journal of the National Cancer Center (via PubMed Central); World Health Organization / International Agency for Research on Cancer; International Journal of Molecular Sciences (via PubMed Central); Journal of Biological Chemistry (PubMed record); NobelPrize.org (Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute)

The double edge

No harm has been traced to Cohen's own conduct, but the drugs built on his receptor carry real risks. The most serious is a rare lung inflammation called interstitial lung disease, which can kill. In a small early Japanese trial of gefitinib in patients not tested for EGFR mutations, 4 of 40 (10%) died of lung disease. In a Japanese survey of 10,708 patients on erlotinib, 4.3% developed it. Among 2,006 Japanese bowel cancer patients on cetuximab, 1.2% had drug-related lung injury, and 10 of those patients died. Rash and diarrhoea are common. The drugs help mainly patients whose tumours carry EGFR changes, and tumours usually become resistant, so advanced cancer is rarely cured. Evidence for EGF injections in foot ulcers comes largely from small studies, many by the Cuban centre that developed the product.

  • Moderate

    Rare but sometimes fatal lung injury from EGFR-blocking drugs

    Interstitial lung disease is an uncommon but serious side effect of EGFR drugs. In one small early Japanese gefitinib trial in untested patients, 4 of 40 (10%) died of it. A Japanese survey found it in 4.3% of 10,708 erlotinib patients. In a Japanese registry of 2,006 cetuximab patients, 1.2% had lung injury, and 10 of them died.[15],[19],[20],[25]

  • Minor

    Longer life, rarely a cure

    EGFR pills work mainly in tumours with EGFR mutations. Patients eventually develop resistance, so the drugs extend life in advanced lung cancer but seldom cure it. Common side effects include rash and diarrhoea.[7],[15]

  • Minor

    Thin, developer-led evidence for EGF wound injections

    Much of the published evidence for injecting recombinant EGF into diabetic foot ulcers comes from small studies, and a 2024 review of the method was written by scientists at the Cuban centre that makes the product.[21],[22]

Against the odds

Cohen grew up in Brooklyn in the 1920s and 1930s. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia with little schooling, and his father worked as a tailor. They were part of a wave of about two million Russian Jews who came to the United States between 1880 and 1914. Open hostility to Jews in American universities was at its worst in the decades when those immigrants' children were applying. Harvard's president argued openly for limiting Jewish students. Medical schools used unofficial quotas: a 1939 B'nai B'rith study found that about 25% of Jewish applicants to medical school were admitted, against 50% of other applicants. For many poor Jewish families in New York, free city colleges were the way in. Cohen wrote that Brooklyn College's policy of charging no tuition mattered as much as its teaching, because his parents could not have paid. After graduating in 1943 he worked as a bacteriologist in a milk processing plant to save for graduate school, then lived on fellowships. He had also survived childhood polio, which left him with lifelong trouble in his legs. We found no record that he personally faced antisemitic exclusion. His story is less about persecution than about an immigrant's son whose way into science ran through a free public college.

  • 1943

    Poverty

    His parents could not have afforded college tuition, so he went to tuition-free Brooklyn College. After graduating he worked as a bacteriologist in a milk plant to save money for graduate school.[2]

  • —

    Other

    He had polio as a child, and it left him with leg mobility problems that stayed with him as an adult.[5],[6]

  • 1939

    Quota

    In his college years, American medical schools restricted Jewish admissions. A 1939 B'nai B'rith study found about 25% of Jewish applicants were admitted, against 50% of others. This was the wider climate; we found no record of Cohen himself being turned away.[14]

Jewish background

Both parents JewishRelationship to Jewish identity not documented

In his Nobel autobiography Cohen wrote that both his parents were Russian Jewish immigrants who came to America in the early 1900s. His father was a tailor and his mother kept house. Vanderbilt's obituary also calls him the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia. We found no public statement by Cohen about religious practice or about his own Jewish identity, so we record his personal relationship to it as unknown. His inclusion rests on his parents' background, which he described himself.[2],[5]

Key dates

  1. November 17, 1922

    Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants; his father was a tailor.[1],[2]

  2. 1943

    Graduates from tuition-free Brooklyn College, having majored in biology and chemistry.[2],[9]

  3. 1945

    Earns a master's degree in zoology at Oberlin College.[2]

  4. 1948

    Earns a PhD in biochemistry at the University of Michigan, studying earthworm metabolism.[2]

  5. 1952

    Moves to Washington University in St. Louis to learn radioisotope methods with Martin Kamen.[2]

  6. 1953

    Joins Viktor Hamburger's zoology department to purify nerve growth factor with Rita Levi-Montalcini.[2],[4]

  7. 1959

    Joins Vanderbilt University as an assistant professor of biochemistry, where he stays for the rest of his career.[2],[5]

  8. 1962

    Reports isolating the mouse protein that speeds eyelid opening and tooth eruption, later named epidermal growth factor.[10],[23]

  9. 1975

    With Graham Carpenter, characterizes how EGF binds specific receptors on human cells.[3],[11]

  10. 1980

    His lab shows that the EGF-activated receptor tags the amino acid tyrosine, revealing how the growth signal enters the cell.[3],[12]

  11. 1986

    Wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Rita Levi-Montalcini, the Lasker Award and the National Medal of Science.[1],[2],[5]

  12. 2000

    Retires from Vanderbilt as Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry.[6],[9]

  13. 2003

    Gefitinib, the first drug to block the EGF receptor, is approved in the US for lung cancer.[15],[24]

  14. February 5, 2020

    Dies in Nashville, Tennessee, aged 97.[1],[5]

Sources

  1. 1.Stanley Cohen - Facts · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach)
  2. 2.Stanley Cohen - Biographical · NobelPrize.org (from Les Prix Nobel 1986, Nobel Foundation, 1987), 1987
  3. 3.Epidermal Growth Factor (Nobel Lecture, 8 December 1986) · NobelPrize.org, 1986
  4. 4.The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1986 - Press release · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute), 1986
  5. 5.Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Stanley Cohen dies at 97 · Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC News), 2020
  6. 6.Stanley Cohen (1922-2020) (retrospective) · ASBMB Today, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2020
  7. 7.Stanley Cohen's Nobel Prize: 25 years of progress · Vanderbilt University News, 2011
  8. 8.Stanley Cohen (1922- ), Embryo Project Encyclopedia · Arizona State University
  9. 9.Item of Interest: Stanley Cohen, Nobel Winner and Longtime NICHD Grantee, Dies · Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH), 2020
  10. 10.Isolation of a mouse submaxillary gland protein accelerating incisor eruption and eyelid opening in the new-born animal (Cohen S; J Biol Chem 237:1555-1562) · Journal of Biological Chemistry (PubMed record), 1962
  11. 11.Characterization of the binding of 125-I-labeled epidermal growth factor to human fibroblasts (Carpenter G, Lembach KJ, Morrison MM, Cohen S; J Biol Chem 250:4297-4304) · Journal of Biological Chemistry (PubMed record), 1975
  12. 12.Identification of phosphotyrosine as a product of epidermal growth factor-activated protein kinase in A-431 cell membranes (Ushiro H, Cohen S; J Biol Chem 255:8363-8365) · Journal of Biological Chemistry (PubMed record), 1980
  13. 13.Epidermal growth factor stimulates phosphorylation in membrane preparations in vitro (Carpenter G, King L, Cohen S; Nature 276:409-410) · Nature (PubMed record), 1978
  14. 14.The Jewish Problem in U.S. Medical Education, 1920-1955 (Halperin EC; J Hist Med Allied Sci 56:140-167) · Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (PDF hosted by the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina), 2001
  15. 15.Epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer in the past 30 years (1997-2026) (Xie et al.; Chin Med J 139:973) · Chinese Medical Journal (via PubMed Central), 2026
  16. 16.The prevalence of EGFR mutation in patients with non-small cell lung cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis (Zhang YL et al.; Oncotarget) · Oncotarget (via PubMed Central), 2016
  17. 17.Global cancer burden growing, amidst mounting need for services (news release, 1 February 2024) · World Health Organization / International Agency for Research on Cancer, 2024
  18. 18.Cancer incidence and mortality in China, 2022 (Han B et al.; J Natl Cancer Cent) · Journal of the National Cancer Center (via PubMed Central), 2024
  19. 19.Final safety and efficacy of erlotinib in the phase 4 POLARSTAR surveillance study of 10 708 Japanese patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (Gemma A et al.; Cancer Sci 105:1584-1590) · Cancer Science (PubMed record), 2014
  20. 20.Incidence and clinical features of drug-induced lung injury in patients with advanced colorectal cancer receiving cetuximab (Satoh T et al.; Jpn J Clin Oncol 44:1032-1039) · Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology (PubMed record), 2014
  21. 21.Epidermal Growth Factor Intralesional Delivery in Chronic Wounds: The Pioneer and Standalone Technique for Reversing Wound Chronicity and Promoting Sustainable Healing (Berlanga-Acosta J et al.; Int J Mol Sci 25) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences (via PubMed Central), 2024
  22. 22.An Effective Solution to Accelerate the Healing of Complex Ulcers Using Recombinant Human Epidermal Growth Factor (Intralesional Application): A Review (Cacua Sanchez MT et al.; Drug Des Devel Ther 19:5615) · Drug Design, Development and Therapy (via PubMed Central), 2025
  23. 23.Biochemist Stanley Cohen Dies · The Scientist, 2020
  24. 24.Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in Cancer: Current Use and Future Prospects (Dickerson H et al.; Int J Mol Sci 25:10008) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences (via PubMed Central), 2024
  25. 25.First-line single agent treatment with gefitinib in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: a phase II study (Niho S et al.; J Clin Oncol 24:64-69) · Journal of Clinical Oncology (PubMed record), 2006

Fact-checked on September 24, 2026 by a separate AI fact-checking pass that re-opened the sources, with 9 corrections made. How we check

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