History of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is one of the oldest departments of the Center. It was established in 1932.

At the beginning the Department performed general clinical blood tests and hematology tests, and conducted research into the morphology of blood cells in cases of oncohematological diseases. Later the Department introduced biochemical screening, bone marrow examinations, blood type tests and study of clotting tendencies of blood into the range of its diagnostic services.

In the 1960s the Department started conducting research into enzymes and mineral metabolism. At the same time the bacteriology laboratory was established.

The scientific activities of the Department included the study of the metastasis, naturally acquired immunity and effects of various types of cancer therapies on the naturally acquired immunity. The staff of the Department also pursued the improvement of testing methods and the development of methods for identifying the concentration of chemotherapeutic drugs in the blood of patients. Additionally, the Department closely collaborated with the research laboratories of the Center in an attempt to discover new anti-cancer agents and adaptogens that could be used to treat cancer patients, and to perform pre-clinical trials of these new anti-cancer agents and adaptogens.

In the 1970s-1980s the Department focused on the research into the hematological, biochemical and immunologic changes of the blood of patients who underwent radiation therapy.

In the early 1990s, the Department cooperated with the Chemotherapy Department to pursue research into selection and testing of the most effective panel of monoclonal antibodies for differential diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphomas (B- and T-cell) and reactive lymphoid hyperplasias. The results of that research formed the basis of the thesis entitled ‘Immunophenotyping in the diagnosis of non-Hodgkin malignant lymphomas (B- and T-cell)’ written by T.M. Dzembak in 1994 to obtain a Ph.D. degree.

In the 2000s, in collaboration with the Molecular Oncology Laboratory the Department devoted a considerable effort to research of malignancies and pre-malignancies of the stomach and to development the techniques of their early detection. The results of many years of work in that field were summed up in the academic papers and guidelines for practicing physicians written by A.I. Ovsyannikov (Ph.D. in Medicine) and Professor V.P. Kalinovskiy.

At present the Department is mostly focused on clinical laboratory tests and is a large division of the Center’s clinic, which uses cutting-edge laboratory equipment.

Throughout its long history, the Department was headed by T.V. Shemyakina, G.G. Ivanov, I.V. Grekh (D.Sc. in Medicine), V.B. Letskiy (D.Sc. in Medicine), V.K. Gurkalo (D.Sc. in Medicine).