A HISTORY OF LUNG CANCER: THE RECALCITRANT DISEASE By Carsten Timmermann (University of Manchester, UK) Palgrave Macmillan, 19 Nov 2013 ISBN: 9781403988027
This is the first comprehensive history of lung cancer,
once considered a rare condition and today the leading cause of cancer deaths
world-wide. We are used to associating cancer treatment with scientific
progress, but a patient diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013 is no more likely to
survive the disease for five or more years than a patient undergoing lung
cancer surgery in the 1950s. A breakthrough has remained elusive for this
condition, now firmly associated with the smoking of cigarettes. Drawing on
many unpublished and little-used sources, this book tells the history of lung
cancer, of doctors and patients, hopes and fears, expectations and frustrations
over the past 200 years, as a rare chest affliction transformed into a major
killer. Suggesting that lung cancer is not the only recalcitrant disease,
Timmermann asks what happens when medical progress does not seem to make much
difference.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction: The History of a Recalcitrant Disease
2. Lung Cancer and Consumption in the Nineteenth Century:
Bodies, Tissues, Cells, and the Making of a Rare Disease
3. Lungs in the Operating Theatre, Circa 1900 to 1950
4. Science, Medicine and Politics: Lung Cancer and
Smoking, Circa 1945 to 1965
5. Trials and Tribulations: Lung Cancer Treatment, Circa
1950 to 1970 6. More Enthusiasm, Please: Preventing, Screening, Treating,
Classifying, Circa 1960 to 1990
7. The Management of Stigma: Lung Cancer and Charity,
Circa 1990 to 2000
8. Still Recalcitrant? Some Conclusions