ABSTRACT
My earlier book on public knowledge, Technologies of Knowing (1999) opened with a discussion of the exasperation that women felt at the time in the face of conflicting advice on breast cancer. Some physicians and cancer organizations recommended, and some opposed, mammograms before the age of fifty. A similar difference of opinion voiced over the value of breast self-examinations. The research on these methods of detection offered equivocal results as to their effectiveness in saving lives. Clearly a more coordinated approach was needed to help people make sense of the discrepancies in the findings and I explored some of those possibilities in Technologies of Knowing. Although questions remain concerning the efficacy of mammograms and self-examination, the good news is that the death rate from breast cancer declined 5.6 percent from 1990 through 1993. The reduction has been attributed to improved detection and treatment, which is to credit, at least in part, the role of public knowledge in fighting the disease. Despite continuing uncertain-ties over early dection methods in this instance, increases in public awareness do contribute to greater vigilance and research support.
