ABSTRACT
F or lay persons, and for many professionals, the word 'cancer' evokes above all the 'dread disease' of Western society, while its association with the word 'science' refers to the hope that science will bring a solution to the 'cancer problem.' From the 1920s on, the official discourse of cancer experts stressed the key role of fundamental scientific research in reducing the threat of malignant disease. Experts explained that recent advances in the understanding of biochemical, biological, and genetic mechanisms of cell multiplication would be rapidly translated into the control of 'deviant cells,' that is, into the prevention and the cure of malignant growths, and into the alleviation of the plight of cancer patients. The official optimism of the 'cancer establishment' was, however, moderated in the 1980s and '90s by statistics which reflected the stagnation (and, in some areas, increase) of morbidity and mortality from malignancies. The important investments in research in the post-World War I1 era notwithstanding, there is still no cure or prevention in sight for the frequent cancers of the adult. Even so, the expansion of cancer studies has deeply affected biomedical research. The medical problem of cancer was translated into answerable biological questions. Such translation has often advanced biological rather than medical knowledge. Thanks to their central place in biomedical research, cancer studies have contributed to the development of new areas of biomedical investigation.
