Assemblages of cancer : Experiences and contexts of breast cancer in the UK, France and Italy

Abstract

Assemblages of Cancer offers a comparative, in-depth analysis of breast cancer in the UK, France and Italy, linking patients’ experiences with the biomedical, political and cultural context of the disease. The book is based on ten years of ethnographic research with patients and medical professionals across the three countries. It shows how breast cancer experiences can be best understood as provisional assemblages involving transformed bodies, uncertainties due to a possible relapse, and tinkering with standardised protocols and pathways to make treatments work for each patient. The analysis highlights the shared specificities and internal variations of breast cancer in the three countries. It explores how universal healthcare systems impacted by privatisation processes, local variations in the workings of biomedicine, and local changes to the North American pink ribbon discourses and advocacy transform the experiences of breast cancer. The book presents an in-depth analysis of how breast cancer and its treatments alter not only women’s bodies but also their personal and professional lives. It further analyses patients’ strategies to rebuild new meaning and values around the uncertainties brought by cancer and to counter its consequences. Across the chapters, the analyses cover questions linked to the organisation of healthcare systems, cultural discourses about breast cancer, and medical innovation. They connect these topics to how patients’ bodies are redefined and how their experiences and expectations for the future change. Additionally, they examine how breast cancer affects patients’ working lives and relationships, ultimately leading to a new understanding of the disease in Europe today.