Professor and Senior Consultant Ismail Gögenur is receiving the 2025 Marie and August Krogh Prize for his innovative approach and enormous contribution to cancer research. He has focused on personalising the treatment of patients and using artificial intelligence to make significant progress in clinical research with great results for patients.
”We should provide the world’s best possible treatment for patients.” This is how Ismail Gögenur describes how he started his journey, setting out to assemble a cross-disciplinary team to develop individualised strategies for treating people with cancer.
As one of Denmark’s leading researchers in colorectal cancer and personalised cancer surgery, Ismail Gögenur has combined artificial intelligence and a multidisciplinary approach in developing a prediction model as a tool to support decision-making on individual patient treatment. This has resulted in many fewer patients with complications and shorter hospitalisations.
Based on his discoveries, extraordinary initiatives and influential contributions to research, including more than 520 scientific papers, Ismail Gögenur is now receiving the 2025 Marie and August Krogh Prize. The Prize is DKK 1.5 million and is awarded by the Organization of Danish Medical Societies and the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
”Ismail is a driving force in Denmark’s healthcare system. He is slightly more than halfway through his career but has long since demonstrated that he is an outstanding professional in not just Region Zealand but throughout Denmark and internationally. His clever use of data and artificial intelligence keeps the most important objective in mind: optimising treatment for individual patients. This is why we are here, and integrating his initiatives with research and education across traditional boundaries produces optimal results,” says Susanne Axelsen, Senior Medical Officer and Chair of the Organization of Danish Medical Societies.
In acknowledging this recognition, Ismail Gögenur says: “This means so much to me. Researchers are constantly self-reflecting and striving for optimal results for patients. The fact that our initiatives are being noticed and recognised by the Organization of Danish Medical Societies, which is accustomed to reviewing excellent research, is a huge pat on the back for the whole team.”
Patients are the primary driving force
51-year-old Ismail Gögenur graduated in Medical Sciences from the University of Copenhagen in 1999 and became a specialist in surgery in 2012. Today he is a Professor at the Department of Clinical Medicine of the University of Copenhagen and Senior Consultant at the Department of Surgery of Zealand University Hospital in Køge. There he founded the Center for Surgical Science, a research unit with about 50 full-time employees, an independent research laboratory and a data science unit.
“Does daring to think differently and innovatively in treating patients enable us to react more rapidly and more effectively to their needs?” asks Ismail Gögenur. He is driven by both scientific fascination but also being indignant that he cannot do more for patients. Rather than simply accepting that not everyone does well, he chooses to act.
He has had a drive for action since childhood. His parents moved from Turkey to Denmark in 1969; both worked at a factory for many years and taught him the value of hard work. “I have definitely adopted a fighter’s mentality – we should not stand idly by.”
There is currently much visionary discussion on artificial intelligence, but this should become more than just talk. Ismail Gögenur’s research field is crying out for implementation, and he thinks that more hands-on experience is required.
The multidisciplinary nerve
Ismail Gögenur focuses on the entire patient journey to integrate the insights contributed by many disciplines. “We must harness the synergy between the competencies we each have as surgeons, nurses, physiotherapists, dietitians, anaesthesiologists and oncologists,” he says and emphasises that “being able to collaborate is essential to be successful.”
“It is almost touching to experience how much energy is released when we grasp that multidisciplinary spark,” he says. He also explains that special things happen when you put clinicians and data scientists together to solve a joint problem, and that “skilled clinicians improve the mathematics of artificial intelligence”.
New study will revolutionise the approach to treatment
Although Ismail Gögenur is a specialist in surgery, he is also involved in non-surgical treatment. He has been the principal investigator on major studies in Denmark aimed at promoting non-surgical treatment for people with colorectal cancer. This year he is embarking on a new study on colorectal cancer, which has just been awarded a grant by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The goal is to use immunotherapy as the sole treatment.
“This will be a groundbreaking study because we are planning to avoid surgery,” says Ismail Gögenur, who will use artificial intelligence to select the patients who will not undergo surgery. Immunotherapy has proven to be so effective for a subgroup of patients that just one dose eliminates the cancer among almost half of them in 3–5 weeks.
“This is really fascinating, because this converts cancer into pneumonia,” he says.
The future and the team in focus
In addition to research, Ismail Gögenur, who is married and a “proud father of four daughters”, also focuses on supporting the next generations of practitioners by teaching at Zealand University Hospital.
“I am proud to have contributed to developing a strong team of skilled people with a new approach to treating patients that can continue this work,” says Ismail Gögenur.
Ismail Gögenur will officially receive the Prize at the annual general meeting of the Organization of Danish Medical Societies today.
About the Marie and August Krogh Prize
The Marie and August Krogh Prize was established in 1969 and is awarded annually to an outstanding health researcher in Denmark. The Organization of Danish Medical Societies and the Novo Nordisk Foundation award the Prize, which is accompanied by DKK 1.5 million (€200,000), comprising a personal award of DKK 250,000 and a research grant of DKK 1.25 million. The Board of the Organization acts as the Prize committee, and the Foundation provides the accompanying funds. Affiliated members of the Organization of Danish Medical Societies may nominate candidates for the Prize.
About the Organization of Danish Medical Societies
The Organization of Danish Medical Societies is an umbrella organisation for Denmark’s 127 medical societies and represents nearly 26,000 members. The objective of the Organization is to promote medical science in Denmark and to manage the overall interests of its constituent societies in relation to Denmark’s health authorities and national health policies. The Organization also promotes an understanding of Danish medical science and medical research in the public sector. The Organization was founded in 1919 as the Danish Medical Society.