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Conferences and Workshops
Wellcome Trust
Centre for the History of
Science, Technology and Medicine
University of Manchester Faculty of Life Sciences
Sites and Styles: Exploring the Comparative History of Cancer
Manchester, 22-24 March 2007
Our project initially was confined to cancer in the UK, but it soon became international, for two complementary reasons. First that British development needed to be understood as part of an international field, with American models of particular importance. Secondly, because we have worked with fellow historians of cancer in various countries, thus sharing national and cross national-perspectives. For our third workshop we focused on comparative studies. We did not require that each of the papers was comparative, expecting to be able to put together similar studies from different sites; but we do wanted contributions which are open to comparisons in discussion, and we hope to develop the comparative aspects in any publications.
Comparisons between countries were one focus -- and we expected to include
deep and wide studies of national differences in cancer services, partly
with an eye to what might be learned for services now -- but the conference
was not restricted to national differences, or to services. We included
patterns of research, education, and the compilation of statistics and
other forms of evidence, including registries and clinical trials. From
our own work, we explored comparisons between different kinds of cancer,
e.g. breast with lung, or prostate; and childhood cancers with those in
adults. We are also interested in comparisons between kinds of hospitals,
e.g. regional centres and district cancer units, or between private and
public sectors, or perhaps comparisons across time. We intended to include
studies of the near present, as long as there is some historical perspective,
and sociological, economics and policy contributions.
Patients and Pathways: Cancer Therapies in Historical and Sociological Perspective
Manchester, 6-8 October 2005
In this conference we aimed to develop a comparative historical and sociological perspective on what a diagnosis of cancer meant for different patients in different countries and at different points in time. The diagnosis and treatment of cancer is a harrowing experience. Memoirs of cancer patients and their carers tell stories of both high hopes and deep despair, fuelled by new technologies and techniques on the one hand, and disturbing bodily changes on the other. However, patient experiences have differed widely over the last century, depending, for example, on the time and the place of a cancer diagnosis, the type of malignant disease, the gender and the age of the patient. Patient experiences have changed along with diagnostic and treatment technologies, referral systems, the emergence of new means of communication, and the changing status of patients and medical professionals.
Through the idea of co-produced 'pathways' we sought to understand how specific historical and cultural shapings of cancer treatments mapped on to patient experience, and to lay and professional views of health, disease and medicine. We particularly looked at the new hospital regimes to emerge with the introduction of new therapeutic modalities such as radiotherapy or chemotherapy. How were these new experimental treatments deployed and organized? What was the meaning and role of the clinical trial when applied to hopeless cases suffering the 'dread disease' of cancer?
We wanted to know how specific pathways were created and managed at different times and in different national contexts. When and how did people turn into patients? Who decided how best to treat patients? At what point did treatment become palliation? And how did such decision making structures emerge? Finally, we wish to explore the question of what it means to say a cancer is 'cured', and what notions of cure, remission and palliation can offer to cultural and historical understandings of health and disease. We encouraged presenters, wherever possible, to discuss complete patient pathways, always with regard to the specificities of time and place.
Cancer in the Twentieth Century
Bethesda, 15-17 November 2004.
A workshop sponsored by the National Library of Medicine, the Wellcome Trust funded Cancer History Project at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester, and the Society for Social History of Medicine.
Organizer: Dr David Cantor.
Last changed:
04-Apr-2007
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