Powstanie i działalność organizacji do walki z rakiem w Polsce : do 1939 r.

First organizations to fight cancer were created at the beginning of the 20th century. Their activity was started by the Komitee für Krebssammelforschung founded in 1900 in Berlin. In 1906 in Warsaw, the Committee to Study and Research Cancer was founded, which existed until 1918. The Committee conducted several statistical research concerning occurrence of cancer in Poland, carried out a number of preventive actions and organized competition for the best scientific work in oncology. At the Committee's initiative the City Health Centre for the Sick From Tumours in Łódź was created (1918). After regaining independence by Poland, several other anti-cancer organizations were created: Polish Committee to Fight Cancer (Warsaw 1921), Lodz Association to Fight Cancer (Lodz 1927), Vilna Committee to Fight Cancer (Vilna 1931) and the Association - Polish Anti-Cancer Institute in Lvov (Lvov 1929). In April 1938 in Warsaw, with the purpose to integrate efforts in the struggle with cancer, the Polish Anti-Cancer Union came into being. The abovementioned organisations were functioning at the social cost, with only a minor support for the state. The main purpose of Polish anti-cancer organisations was to construct oncological diagnostic-therapeutic establishments, on the basis of which scientific research was conducted. Polish oncologists also participated in numerous meetings and international scientific conferences and published their works in Polish and foreign magazines. The biggest organizational achievement of Polish oncologists was the construction in Warsaw of a modern Maria Skłodowska-Curie Radium Institute (1932).