Radio/ Oncol 1996: 30: 317-8.
In memoriam
Prof. Krsto Kolaric
Prof. Krsto Kolaric, Ph.D., lelt lis forever on April 28, 19%.
The severe illness which he had bravely fought for several years finally gained the upper hand. He lelt lis almost imperceptibly, as il' he had come to terms with the inevitable.
He was bom in Koprivnica on May 22, 1928. He finished high school in Zagreb, where he also graduated from the School of Medicine of Ihe University in 1953. In 1963 he completed his specialization in internal medicine at the Military Hospital in Zagreb, where he later became Head of the Hema-tology Division of the Medical Department. In 1972 he joined the Central lnslitute for Tumors and Allied Diseases.
His efforts were instrumental in the establishment, over the past 24 years, of the medical oncology nucleus which has had a major impad on the development of this medical subspecialty in Croatia. He founded the Chemotherapy and Medical Oncology Service of the Institute for Tumors in line with modem principles. He introdLiced solid tumor polychemotherapy, and modem clinical testing
principles in the treatment of solid tumor patients, into Croatian medicine. The Chemotherapy and Medical Oncology Service and the Central Institute for Tumors (now the University Hospital for Tumors) became the venue of many European polyc-entric clinical trials, many of which were designed in Zagreb.
Prof. Kolaric was a member of a dozen European and overseas oncological associations, among which particular mention should be made of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists (elected member), the European Society for Medical Oncology and the European Association for Cancer Research. He was an honorary member of the Hungarian Oncological Society. Prof. Kolaric has coauthored ten foreign books on solid tumor chemotherapy, and was one of the editors and authors of the first book on solid tumor chemotherapy to appear in Croatia, The Chemotherapy of Malignant Solid Tumors, published in Zagreb in 1982. He was a consultant of the World Health Organization. He took part as invited lecturer in many international scientific meetings and conferences. Prof. Kolaric was also the M.S. and Ph.D. thesis supervisor of quite a few young researchers. From 1991 to his death he was the editor-in-chief of the Croatian oncological journal Libri Oncologici. In 1986 he was appointed Professor at the Internal Medicine Chair of the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb.
Prof. Kolaric published more than 200 scientific and technical papers, half of them in leading foreign journals. He was one of the most frequently quoted Croatian scientists in international scientific publications. There was hardly a European country in which he did not have close contacts with leading oncologists, and he also exchanged his experience with many American oncologists. He travelled throughout the world promoting the achievement of Croatian medicine and contributing to the scientific image of Croatia. He helped many colleagues, also beyond Croatia's frontiers, in their scientific and professional advancement, and he fostered particu-
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In memoriam
larly close relations with his colleagues in Slovenia. He was a masterly scientist with a particular feeling for detecting the essence of a scientific problem and designing a new research project on that basis. He was obliging, cordial, well-meaning, ready to help, to teach, but also to reprimand when he thought it necessary. He always welcomed the success of his younger associates.
He devoted the last years of his life to Clinical Oncology, a project into which he had invested all
his effort and knowledge; unfortunately, he did not live to see the publication of this major work of Croatian oncology.
We have lost so much with the premature death of our esteemed colleague, teacher and dear friend, but his professional and scientific work has left an indelible trace in medical onoclogy.
Zagreb, July 1996	Anton Roth