Breast Cancer Gene Research and Medical Practices

Gibbon, Sahra; Joseph, Galen; Nieden, Andrea zur; Palfner, Sonja

doi:10.4324/9780203385517

Cited by 15 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…There is an extensive literature on genomics and diagnosis in breast cancer on which I do not focus here, including research considering BRCA genes that predispose to breast cancer and the creation of pre-vivors (e.g. Gibbon et al, 2014;Löwy, 2010;Werner-Lin et al, 2012) and the use of Oncotype DX for determining the risk of relapse and the utility of chemotherapy (e.g. Kerr et al, 2021).…”

Section: Orcid Idmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coexisting cancer regimes: Transformations of breast and lung cancer in the United Kingdom

Greco

2023

Health (London)

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Using in-depth interviews with medical professionals working in the UK, I explore the coexistence of two different cancer regimes in which the different innovations for breast and lung cancer can be located. Breast cancer treatment has seen a protracted series of significant innovations in the context of an emphasis on screening that coexists with a segmentation in subtypes that has allowed targeted therapies for most patients. Lung cancer has also seen the introduction of targeted therapies; however, these can only be used for small groups of patients. Consequently, some interviewees working on lung cancer have expressed a stronger focus on increasing the number of patients undergoing surgery, as well as introducing screening also for lung cancer. As a result, a cancer regime based on the promises of targeted therapies coexists with a more traditional approach that focuses on diagnosing and treating cancers in their early stages.

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Section: Orcid Idmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coexisting cancer regimes: Transformations of breast and lung cancer in the United Kingdom

Greco

2023

Health (London)

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“…However, from BRCA genes to the whole of the cancer continuum, the majority of anthropological writing on cancer is about female cancers and cancer experiences. In examining the global impact of BRCA mutations, Gibbon et al (2014) acknowledge that this work is at the forefront of genomic research but note that it is an example of "gendered and gendering" (p. 2) medical research. The relative invisibility of cancer work in Africa (where, in many areas, cancer rates are slightly higher for women) or in the lives of men despite the statistics begs for a more critical examination of our methods as we choose new directions for the anthropology of cancer.…”

Section: Statistical Anchorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The issue of solidarity around cancer risk and cancer support groups has engendered important conversations around identity and biosociality (Gibbon & Novas 2008. The global rise of genomic medicine, and testing for BRCA1 or BRCA2, in particular (see Gibbon et al 2014 for global ethnographic discussions of this testing), has led to the creation of a biosociality around cancer-biological identities that are entwined in the politics of managing life (Gibbon & Novas 2008, Gibbon et al 2014. Rather than attending to a biological identity, Stoller (2013) considers this solidarity a kind of communitas, the sense felt by a group of people when their life together takes on full meaning through the constant liminality of remission.…”

Section: Support Groups In Global Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cancer

McMullin

2016

Annu. Rev. Anthropol.

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Previous work in the anthropology of cancer often examined causes, risks, and medical, familial, and embodied relationships created by the disease. Recent writing has expanded that focus, attending to cancer as a “total social fact” ( Jain 2013 ) and dissecting the landscape of “carcinogenic relationships” ( Livingston 2012 ). Cancer-driven relationships become subjectively real through individual suffering, stigma, and inequality. This article traces concepts developed from a primarily US-centered discourse to a global cancer discourse, including cancer-related issues continuing to raise concern such as stigma, narrative moments of critical reflection on the dominance of biomedicine, and processes by which individuals and communities manage inadequate access to biomedical technologies. Beyond the medical relations and politics of cancer, this article considers the ways in which ethnography addresses local moral worlds and differences that come to matter in attending to the disease, the person, and consequent social and material relations.

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Cancers' Multiplicities

Manderson¹

2022

A Companion to Medical Anthropology

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Breast Cancer Gene Research and Medical Practices

Cited by 15 publications

References 13 publications

Coexisting cancer regimes: Transformations of breast and lung cancer in the United Kingdom

Coexisting cancer regimes: Transformations of breast and lung cancer in the United Kingdom

Cancer

Cancers' Multiplicities

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