The Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology (, until 2020 ''Maria Skłodowska-Curie Institute of Oncology'', ) is a specialized

research institute A research institute, research centre, or research organization is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural ...

and hospital of the Polish Ministry of Health. Based in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, it also has regional branches in

Gliwice Gliwice (; , ) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river (a tributary of the Oder River, Oder). It lies approximately 25 km west from Katowice, the regional capital ...

and

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. It was founded in 1932 as the Radium Institute by double-

Nobel laureate The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...

Maria Skłodowska-Curie in collaboration with the Polish Government, especially President

Ignacy Mościcki Ignacy Mościcki (; 1 December 1867 – 2 October 1946) was a Polish chemist and politician who was the country's president from 1926 to 1939. He was the longest serving president in Polish history. Mościcki was the President of Poland when Ge ...

History

The institute was created in 1925 following the success of the first Radium Institute, which had been set up in 1918 by Maria Skłodowska-Curie at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

. While Maria toured the United States to raise funds, receiving the gift of a gram of radium from US President

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...

that had been bought with funds raised by American women, her sister

Bronisława Dłuska Bronisława Dłuska (; ; 28 March 186515 April 1939) was a Polish physician, and co-founder and first director of Warsaw's Maria Skłodowska-Curie Institute of Oncology. She was married to political activist Kazimierz Dłuski, and was an ol ...

supervised fundraising in Poland and oversaw the construction and recruitment, organising a campaign that sold symbolic bricks featuring Maria's image. It was officially opened on 29 May 1932, with Bronisława continuing as the director. One of the institute's brick walls bears the inscription, "''MARII SKŁODOWSKIEJ CURIE, W HOŁDZIE''"—"In homage to Maria Skłodowska Curie." In August 1944, during the

Ochota massacre The Ochota massacre (in Polish: ''Rzeź Ochoty'' – ''"Ochota slaughter"'') was a wave of German-orchestrated mass murder, looting, arson, torture and rape, which swept through the Warsaw district of Ochota from 1944, during the Warsaw Uprisin ...

that followed the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

, the patients and the staff were brutally murdered by the members of S.S. Sturmbrigade R.O.N.A. anti-partisan formation, and the building looted and set on fire. After World War II, the Institute re-opened and changed its name to "Maria Skłodowska-Curie Institute of

Oncology Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's Etymology, etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγ ...

", developing into a specialized

and hospital of the Polish Ministry of Health, and opening regional branches in

and

. It is now the leading and most specialized

cancer research Cancer research is research into cancer to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure. Cancer research ranges from epidemiology, molecular bioscience to the performance of clinical trials to evaluate ...

and treatment center in Poland. In May 2013, the institute was brought to international attention when it performed a full

face transplant A face transplant is a medical procedure to replace all or part of a person's face using tissue from a donor. Part of a field called "Vascularized Composite Tissue Allotransplantation" (VCA) it involves the transplantation of facial skin, the n ...

on a man who had been in an industrial accident just a few weeks prior. Just a few months later, they completed a face transplant on a woman who had been disfigured by tumor to the point the she could not eat or talk without great difficulty.

References

External links

Official website Warsaw

Official website Gliwice

Official website Cracow
{{Authority control Organizations established in 1932 Buildings and structures in Warsaw Education in Warsaw Hospitals in Poland Organisations based in Warsaw Medical research institutes in Poland 1932 establishments in Poland Marie Curie Cancer organizations Ochota World War II sites in Warsaw

History

See also

References

External links