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Dr D.J. Jussawalla
Dr D.J. Jussawalla, born on 13 April 1915, started his career as a cancer surgeon in 1948, when he was appointed at the Tata Memorial Hospital. He was one of the founder cancer surgeons in India and made his name as a radical surgeon, mastering the techniques of all major types of operation.
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He was a visionary and opened many avenues in cancer research in addition to therapy. He founded the Indian Cancer Society in 1951, which he nurtured and the activities of which he expanded over the next 45 years, including establishing Cancer Detection Centres, the
Bombay Population-Based Cancer Registry (in 1963) and a fully-fledged Cancer Rehabilitation Centre in 1968. He was the first to establish a department of cytology and a
department of chemotherapy in India, at the Tata memorial Hospital in 1956. He also started the Indian Journal of Cancer (1963) and the Indian Association of Oncologists (1977).
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Dr Jussawalla was associated actively with UICC from 1954, and also with WHO. He became the Director of the Tata Memorial Centre in 1973 and worked for seven years in that capacity. During his tenure he undertook expansion of the Centre and introduced regional specialisation in surgical oncology. He worked in an advisory capacity to many cancer organizations and hospitals in India, and was an active member of many national and international associations concerned with cancer. He was Professsor of Oncology at Bombay University and during his lifetime trained many surgeons in the field of cancer, who have in turn transmitted this expertise across the country.
He was the author of many publications in national and international journals.
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In 1984 he established the Lady Ratan Tata Medical and Research Centre, which was also the Headquarters of the Indian Cancer Society, of which he remained Director until the end.
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In recognition of his contribution to the cancer field in India he received many of the highest national awards, including Padmabhushan, a President’s award. In the Indian context, he was a pioneer in the field of cancer and worked relentlessly to initiate new avenues with the result that he has left a great legacy from which others will draw inspiration.
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In spite of these remarkable achievements, Dr Jussawalla remained humble. As a person he was most soft-spoken, very humane to all but most kind to under-privileged patients. His concern for these was translated into the creation of multiple facilities for them, including free food, shelter and medicines.
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He breathed his last on 29 January 1999 after a brief illness.
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B.B. Yeole
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