Cancer Letters, 20 (1983) l-3 Elsevier Scientific Publishers&eland Ltd.

PROFESSOR L&N M. SHABAD (1902-l

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Professor Leon Shabad was a world leader in Cancer Research, His re- markable facility with lan’guages, his courtly manners and above all his ability to transmit his enthusiasm for the science of oncology will be a vivid memory to many research workers throughout the world. The Editors are most grateful to Professor N. Napalkov for the following obituary:

Professor Leon M. Shabad, a full member of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Medical Sciences and one of the pioneers of experimental cancer research, died on the 29th August, 1982.

After graduating in 1924 from the First Leningrad Medical Institute, Professor Shabad started working in the field of pathology and experimental oncology. His research activities at the beginning of his career were orientated towards the study of spontaneous and induced lung tumours in mice, which was quite a new problem at that time. The outcome of this work was a detailed description of histogenesis and structure of these neoplasms, which further served as a classic model in experimental oncology.

In 1935, Professor Shabad set up a laboratory of experimental oncology in Leningrad, where he developed a new field of research - studies on

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endogenic carcinogenic substances - which was further continued and is being developed nowadays by other scientists.

Between 1935 and 1941 Professor Shabad carried out an extensive study of the effects of chemically pure exogenic carcinogens - polycyclic hydro- carbons.

Since 1941, as a chief of the laboratories of experimental oncology, first at the Institute of Morphology (1944-1952) and then at the Institute of Oncology of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Medical Sciences (1952-1958) Professor Shabad continued more detailed studies on experimental and human pathology of the growth of tumours.

While investigating the process of development of induced tumours in different organs and tissues, Professor Shabad paid special attention to early stages of morphological changes. The data obtained from these studies allowed elaboration of the concept of morphologically detectable pre- cancerous lesions, and a classification of morphological staging of pre- cancerous changes was then created.

From 1958 to 1980 Professor Shabad was the Head of the Department of Carcinogenic Agents and the Chief of the Laboratory of Cancer Pre- vention at the Moscow Institute of Experimental and Clinical Oncology of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Medical Sciences, which was later transformed into the All-Union Oncological Center of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Medical Sciences. At that time Professor Shabad and his colleagues succeeded in developing the model of lung cancer induced in animals by intratracheal administration of carcinogenic hydrocarbons.

Professor Shabad initiated in the U.S.S.R. research on carcinogenic factors in human environment and organized a comprehensive study on this problem, which involved specialists with different backgrounds from various institutions: experimental oncologists, hygienists, chemists, physicists, sanitation engineers, technologists, etc. Based on the results of these in- vestigations, Professor Shabad set forward a concept about circulation of the carcinogens in the human environment, which served as a starting point for several preventive measures aimed at limitation of the level of environ- mental carcinogens. Professor Shabad was a frequent contributor to the cancer literature and published more than 400 works. His 8 monographs summarized his long experience in cancer research, of which the most recent are as follows: Experimental and Morphological Aspects of Precancer; Endogenic Blastomogenic Substances; Methods of Identification and In- vestigation of Carcinogenicity of Chemical Substances; Evolution of Con- ceptions on Blastomogenesis.

Professor Shabad’s great contributions to the science of oncology have been widely acknowledged throughout the world. An academician of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor Shabad was also awarded a title of the Foreign Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, an Honorary Doctor of the University of Prague, a Member of the Czechos- lovakian Medical Society. He was also a Member of the Oncological Societies

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of Bulgaria, Hungary, GDR, and Turkey, an Associate Member of the U.S. Association for Cancer Research. In 1962 he was awarded a prize by the United Nations ‘For a great contribution to the field of research of the causes of cancer and cancer control’. Professor Shabad was an executive secretary at the VIII International Cancer Congress (Moscow) and was very often a representative of the Soviet science abroad due to his participation in different international congresses and conferences.

Those engaged in oncology will keep best memories about Professor L.M. Shabad and his name will remain forever among the names of pioneers of experimental oncology.