Savitskii, Aleksandr

Born Aug. 21 (Sept. 2), 1887, in Moscow; died there June 1, 1973. Soviet surgeon and oncologist; one of the founders of oncology in the USSR. Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1960). Hero of Socialist Labor (1967). Member of the CPSU from 1949.

In 1911, Savitskii graduated from the medical faculty of Moscow University. He was a student of P. A. Gertsen and N. N. Burdenko. From 1939 to 1944 he was head of the subdepart-ment of surgery at the Moscow Institute of Stomatology, and in 1942 and 1943 he was simultaneously a professor of the subde-partment of hospital surgery at the First Moscow Medical Institute. From 1944 to 1953, Savitskii was director of the P. A. Gertsen Central Institute of Oncology, and beginning in 1946, he was simultaneously head of the subdepartment of oncology at the Central Institute for the Advanced Training of Physicians.

Savitskii’s principal works dealt with the early diagnosis and combined treatment of cancer of the esophagus, stomach, and lungs, and with the organization of oncologic care. He was awarded the S. I. Spasokukotskii Prize of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR in 1957 for his monograph Lung Cancer.

Savitskii founded a school of oncologists. He was chairman of the All-Union Society of Oncologists from 1954 and an honorary member of the All-Union Society of Surgeons from 1959. Savitskii was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.