Maria Skłodowska-Curie Institute of Oncology ( ) is a specialized research institute and hospital of the Polish Ministry of Health . Based in Warsaw , it also has regional branches in Gliwice and Kraków . It was founded in 1932 as the Radium Institute by double-Nobel laureate Maria Skłodowska-Curie in collaboration with the Polish Government , especially President Ignacy Mościcki . The Institute was created in 1925 following the success of the first Radium Institute , which had been set up in 1918 by Maria Skłodowska-Curie at the University of Paris . While Maria toured the United States to raise funds , receiving the gift of a gram of radium from US President Herbert Hoover that had been bought with funds raised by American women , her sister Bronisława Dłuska supervised fundraising in Poland and oversaw the construction and recruitment , organising a campaign that sold symbolic bricks featuring Maria 's image . It was officially opened on 29 May 1932 , with Bronisława continuing as the director . One of the Institute 's brick walls bears the inscription , " '' MARII SKŁODOWSKIEJ CURIE , W HOŁDZIE '' " — " In homage to Maria Skłodowska Curie . " In August 1944 , during the Ochota massacre that followed the Warsaw Uprising , the patients and the staff were brutally murdered by the members of S.S. Sturmbrigade R.O.N.A. anti-partisan formation , and the building looted and set on fire
Ochota massacre
Ochota massacre
Curie Institute, Warsaw