DESPITE being situated in a somewhat remote part of Shanghai and its work virtually unknown to all except to the medical profession, the Sino-Belgium Radium Institute continues its dedication to cancer cure and cancer research.

The institute, in the grounds of Sacred Heart Hospital, Yangtszepoo, is the first anti-cancer center in China. It joined a host of other centers carrying out research into the dreaded disease only two weeks ago.

When the Sacred Heart Hospital was founded, the Sino-Belgium Radium Institute contributed the money necessary to found a physio-therapeutical department, (drawing it from the Boxer Indemnity Fund), specializing in the treatment of cancer, this was founded in 1931. Early in 1936, the whole institute was completely re-organized, making it independent of the hospital. The aim being to enlarge the scope of the anti-cancer measures.

The institute’s director M. A. Hilliadis, formerly attached to the Institute of Cancer at Louvin University, Belgium, has five Chinese doctors working under him — the only Chinese people in the country to be trained in anti-cancer work.

Once a cancer suspect has been admitted to the institute, he is examined by each staff doctor, in order to determine whether or not he has cancer, and if he has, what particular type of cancer it is. One of the principal methods of determining the existence of cancer is by the examination of a minute particle of a tumor taken from the patient.

The excellent work which the institute has been carrying out since its foundation is well illustrated by the fact that 500 cases of suspected cancer have responded to treatment. Each case dealt with is followed up carefully afterwards for a period of five years. Some show no recurrence of the disease, while in others cancer breaks out again after a year or two, and they have to return for further treatment. Between 700 to 800 cancer cases are dealt with by the institute each year.

­— Excerpt from the North-China Herald, March 31, 1937