ABSTRACT

Between the two World Wars an illness that mainly affects adults over fifty years old became so prominent that it superseded both tuberculosis and syphilis in importance.
As Patrice Pinell shows, the effect of cancer in France before World War Two reached far beyond the question of its mortality rates. Pinell's socio-historical approach to the early developments in the fight against cancer describes how scientific, therapeutic, philanthropic, ethical, social, economics and political interest combined to transform medicine.

chapter 1|15 pages

A fatal and incurable disease

chapter 2|23 pages

The first successes in treatment

The turning point in surgery

chapter 3|26 pages

Academicism and marginality

chapter 5|23 pages

The beginnings of a policy for the fight against cancer

First outlines of an institutional framework

chapter 6|18 pages

The policy for the fight against cancer: first contradictions, first reorganisations

First contradictions, first reorganisations General mobilisation

chapter 7|19 pages

The rise of ‘big medicine’

chapter 8|14 pages

Between science and charity

The question of incurables

chapter 9|24 pages

Publicity, education, supervision

chapter 10|22 pages

A modern illness