Abstract
In the current context, research is mostly done by research groups. Unlike formal research institutions (laboratories, institutes, universities), informal unions of researchers around the leaders who could generate new ideas and ensure their implementation proved to be most effective. This is what the Lviv school of oncology, founded in 1945 by Professor H. P. Kovtunovych, developed by his disciple Professor A. I. Hnatyshak, and kept up by their followers B. T. Bilynsky, V. R. Savran, T. H. Fetsych, N. A. Volodko, Yu. M. Sternuik and others, is like.Professor H. P. Kovtunovych carried on the traditions of his Teacher M. M. Petrov that consisted in an integral combination of clinical practice and deep understanding of theoretical oncology. He was interested in the problems of theoretical and clinical oncology. Many specialists know his investigations on tumor etiology (the impact of radiation factor), radiation therapy and surgical treatment methods, particularly ablastics and antiblastics. The most prominent representatives of Professor H. P. Kovtunovychy’s Lviv school of oncology include Professor A. I. Hnatyshak, doctor of medical sciences V. D. Keleman, Professor A. M. Serednytskyi, Professor B. V. Kacharovskyi, and Professor H. A. Ivashkevych, and others. He prompted one of his youngest colleagues, B. Bilynsky, to engage into the research of postoperative tumor relapse.Further history of the Lviv school of oncology is tightly connected with the name of Professor Anatoliy Ivanovych Hnatyshak. He graduated from the Lviv Medical Institute in 1940. After the WWII, Anatoliy Hnatyshak returned to his Alma Mater as a teacher. It was already at that time that he started a serious research at Professor Kovtunovych’s department. In 1950, he presented his candidate dissertation entitled “Cancer and tuberculosis”. In 1959, he presented his doctoral dissertation entitled “Thyroid cancer”. Using its materials, he published a monograph in 1963; for many years, it remained the only book on the topic in the former USSR.The following persons have become prominent representatives of his school of oncology under Professor A. I. Hnatyshak’s leadership: Professor B. T. Bilynsky, Professor V. R. Savran, Professor V. I. Dryzhak, Professor V. M. Masliak, Professor R. D. Huliayeva, candidate of medical sciences R. I. Sendetska, candidate of medical sciences L. R. Kryshtalska, candidate of medical sciences M. T. Kordoba, candidate of medical sciences D. S. Kaystrukova, candidate of medical sciences Z. A. Sluzhynska and others. From 1986 to 2004 the department of oncology was chaired by Professor H. P. Kovtunovych’s and Professor A. I. Hnatyshak’s disciple B. T. Bilynsky, doctor of medical sciences (1972), professor (1978), honored master of sciences and engineering of Ukraine (1994), and an academician of the Academy of Sciences of Higher Education of Ukraine (1993). He promoted democratic reformation of the healthcare system in Lviv region, co-authored the project of reorganization of the fi rst Ukrainian hospice, and developed and implemented a screening system for early diagnostics of cancer among the employees of big industrial enterprises. He is the author of over 500 publications including 11 monographs and 3 textbooks, among them the book “Oncology”. It is the fi rst textbook in this area for doctors and students written in Ukrainian (it was republished four times – in 1992, 1998, 2004, and 2007) and summarizes the educational experience of the department. He also prepared the manual “Modern schemes of polychemotherapy of the main diseases in adults and children”. He was the advisor of 5 doctors and 22 candidates of medical sciences, including Professor Ya. M. Romanyshyn, Professor T. H. Fetsych, Professor Sterniuk, doctor of medical sciences O. O. Halay, doctor of medical sciences N. A. Volodko, Professor O. V. Lukavetskyy, O. V. Shyriy, Ya. V. Shparyk, V. A. Dukach, Yu. Yu. Oliynyk, T. B. Kachmar, V. V. Savran, M. M. Mryglotsky, N. O. Lukavetskyy, S. V. Prymak and others. Over the last 5 years, under the supervision of Professor Bilynsky’s disciple Professor T. H. Fetsych, the department of oncology of the Danylo Halytsky Lviv National University has been actively involved into the elaboration of the new methods and techniques of treatment of locally advanced forms of cancer with different localization, which is proven by the articles and patents on application of intraoperative hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemoperfusion for treatment of patients with stomach cancer accompanied by peritoneal sarcomatosis, as well as on application of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemoperfusion in cases of chemoresistant ovary cancer; the search for prognostic factors in esophagus and cardia surgery; the study of the role of separate cell-molecular factors of the micro-surrounding in progressing of malignant tumors of the female reproductive system. The Lviv school of oncology is broader than the department of the same name. It has been uniting the staff of the base institution, Lviv State Oncology Regional Treatment and Diagnostics Center (LSORTDC), where candidates of medical sciences D. S. Kaystrukova, M. M. Yolych, R. I. Sendetska, R. M. Tsiolko, and I. H. Hipp have been working. The head of the department of head and neck tumors O. O. Halay presented his doctoral dissertation. A number of doctors keep doing their research. The head of the department of chemotherapy, docent and candidate of medical sciences Ya. V. Shparyk has established cooperation with counterpart institutions in Europe and the USA. Due to this, one of the most powerful centers of chemotherapy in Ukraine has been established. The center of chemotherapy cooperated with the researchers from the Institute of Hematology and Transfusiology, the candidate of medical sciences V. M. Matlan and doctor of medical sciences N. I. Kitsera, whose doctoral dissertation was dedicated to hereditary tumors. The Lviv school of oncology has been cooperating closely with oncologists from out capital city. B. T. Bilynsky is a professor emeritus of the R. E. Kavetskyi Institute of Experimental Pathology, Oncology, and Radiobiology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.