320 thousand outpatient visits, 100 thousand hospitalisations and 22 thousand surgical procedures each year – these are the numbers summarising the work of the Warsaw-based Maria Skłodowska-Curie Institute of Oncology.

It is a specialised regional centre and also an academic institution, whose decades-long area of expertise is treating organ tumours. The Institute has the third, and the highest, level of referral.

The Oncology Centre consists of the clinical and the research sections.

Treatment in the Institute of Oncology

The clinical section is divided into so-called organ clinics, which deal with specific types of tumours, including tumours of soft tissue, bones, the nervous system, female genital organs, the urinary system, lungs and thorax, the lymphatic system, head and neck cancer, and also breast cancer as well as with reconstructive surgery.

The Institute of Oncology has also a range of institutes dealing with basic research, diagnostics and therapy.

The Institute emphasises that its institutes of external beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy “provide all currently available procedures of radiation therapy," and the diagnostic institutes provide a full spectrum of services, including but not limited to, cytology, cytochemistry and genetics.

Structured this way, the Institute can provide patients with comprehensive cancer treatment, ranging from diagnostics and conservative treatment (including, among other things, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, internal medicine, palliative medicine, rehabilitation and psycho-oncology) to hospital care (surgical oncology, and also general and vascular surgery).

In addition, the Institute is implementing a stem cell transplantation programme and its clinics are accredited by the Ministry of Health to perform all kinds of transplantation.

Within the Institute, there is also an outpatient unit where patients can contact physicians from all its clinics without a referral.

Research and more

As well as providing treatment, the Institute engages in research, services and education. Among other things, the Institute is a leading medical training centre, it publishes its own periodicals on oncology-related issues, and the Institute’s staff is involved in developing clinical practice guidelines for malignant tumours.

The Institute of Oncology is also a leader in cancer epidemiology research and cooperates with the WHO on the implementation of the Tobacco Free Initiative in Europe.

Moreover, it is responsible for maintaining the National Register of Malignant Tumours, and also coordinates the activities of regional registers. Also, it has a tumour prevention programme in place. In 2011, it opened the Tumour Prevention Centre, the first facility in Poland that enables a comprehensive prevention of colon, cervical, breast and skin cancers. The Tumour Prevention Centre conducts prophylactic screening tests, investigates the genetic risk of cancer, and also runs a smoking addiction counselling service.

The Maria Skłodowska-Curie Institute of Oncology is one of the world-wide oldest facilities that deal with cancer treatment. The then Radium Institute opened on 29 May 1932, and the ceremony was attended by Maria Skłodowska-Curie. Initially, it operated on Wawelska Street in Warsaw. Now, the Centre is based in the Ursynów District of Warsaw, on Roentgena Street.

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