Centre de recherche, médecine, sciences, santé et société

Ilana Löwy, directrice de recherche à l’INSERM Histoire des sciences biologiques et médicales : genre et biomédecine Ce séminaire nous a permis de poursuivre l’exploration de thèmes déjà étudiés au cours des années précédentes, notamment l’apport des instruments et des techniques au développement de la biologie et de la médecine ; la place des pratiques expérimentales ; le rôle de l’industrie et de l’État ; la dimension normative de ces disciplines ; et enfin l’importance des changements d’éc..

Le genre du cancer

Le cancer est perçu aujourd’hui comme une maladie qui affecte à peu près autant d’hommes que de femmes. C’est cependant une conception relativement récente. Jusqu’au milieu du xxe siècle, le cancer était considéré comme une pathologie principalement féminine, les tumeurs malignes produisant des symptômes typiques faciles à détecter. Au xxe siècle, les cancers féminins – du sein et de l’utérus – sont les principales cibles des campagnes publiques pour la détection précoce des tumeurs malignes. Depuis les années 1950, le développement de méthodes efficaces de diagnostic et l’augmentation des cancers du poumon, plus fréquents chez les hommes, met fin à l’image du cancer comme une pathologie féminine. Dans les discours publics et les medias, les cancers des organes reproducteurs féminins continuent cependant d’être plus visibles que ceux des organes reproducteurs masculins, et les femmes à risques sont plus souvent sujettes à une chirurgie de prévention mutilante.Today cancer is seen as a disease that affects both sexes roughly equally. This is, however, a relatively recent development. Until the mid-twentieth century, cancer was viewed as a pathology mainly affecting women, because female malignancies produced typical symptoms, and were easier to detect. In the twentieth century, women’s cancers – of breast and uterus – became the principal targets of public campaigns to promote the early detection of malignant tumours. From the 1950s on, the development of more efficient diagnostic methods and the increase in the prevalence of lung cancer, a disease found more often in men, put an end to the image of cancer as a female pathology. On the other hand, cancers of female reproductive organs continue to be more visible in public discourse and the media than those of male reproductive organs, and preventive – and mutilating – forms of surgery are more often proposed for women at risk from these pathologies

The gender of cancer

Today cancer is seen as a disease that affects both sexes roughly equally. This is, however, a relatively recent development. Until the mid-twentieth century, cancer was viewed as a pathology mainly affecting women, because female malignancies produced typical symptoms, and were easier to detect. In the twentieth century, women’s cancers – of breast and uterus – became the principal targets of public campaigns to promote the early detection of malignant tumours. From the 1950s on, the development of more efficient diagnostic methods and the increase in the prevalence of lung cancer, a disease found more often in men, put an end to the image of cancer as a female pathology. On the other hand, cancers of female reproductive organs continue to be more visible in public discourse and the media than those of male reproductive organs, and preventive – and mutilating – forms of surgery are more often proposed for women at risk from these pathologies

Local mutations:On the tentative beginnings of molecular oncology in Britain 1980–2000

Popular and scientific accounts of the molecularisation of cancer typically attribute it to advances in laboratory science, particularly molecular geneticists. However, historical research has indicated that clinical expertise input was often vital for advancing such work. The present paper reinforces that view. Looking in detail at British research into the molecular genetics of familial cancers during the 1980s and 1990s, it shows that that research, too, depended on crucial input from family cancer clinics. Moreover, the development of clinical services for familial cancers was in turn shaped by the demands of contributing to molecular genetic research. The paper concludes that accounts of the molecularisation of cancer that suppose a one-way transfer of knowledge and practice from laboratory to clinic misrepresent the complex interactions that were involved in molecularising familial cancers, and that were informed by the particular local and national circumstances in which they took shape