Overview
- Investigates a topic rarely studied by historians, sociologists and anthropologists
- Goes beyond specific cases of prostate cancer, exploring topics such as the development of high tech medicine, the role of mass screening, the input of patients' activism, and uses of randomized clinical trials
- An important contribution to the study of 20th century biomedicine and its 21st century ramifications
Part of the book series: Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Modern History (MBSMH)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book offers a comprehensive and inclusive insight into the history of prostate cancer and its sufferers. Until recently, little practical help could be offered for men afflicted with the devastating diseases of the genitourinary organs. This is despite complaints of painful urination from aging men being found in ancient medical manuscripts, despite the anatomical discoveries of the European Renaissance and despite the experimental surgical researches of the eighteen and nineteenth centuries. As diseases of the prostate, including prostate cancer, came to be better understood in the early twentieth century, therapeutic nihilism continued as curative radical surgeries and radiotherapy failed. The therapeutic ‘turn’ came with hormonal therapies, itself a product of the explosive growth of U.S. biomedicine from the 1940s onwards. By the 1990s, prostate cancer screening had become a somewhat ubiquitous but controversial feature of the medical encounter for American menas they aged, which greatly influenced the treatment pathways and identity of the male patient: as victim, as hero, and ultimately, as consumer.
Reviews
“Valier takes on the ambitious task of writing a history of prostate cancer from ancient times through to the present day. … This book-length treatment of prostate cancer is a much-needed addition to cancer history. Valier does a good job of indicating areas of interest and potential further inquiry in her important subject.” (Laura Dawes, The British Journal for the History of Science, Vol. 50 (2), June, 2017)
“The text is well written, scholarly and richly referenced, making it a useful starting point for learning about the history of prostate cancer in all its aspects. … Valier delivers a worthwhile lesson about the unintended consequences of medical innovation that is relevant to the trainee doctors, healthcare professionals, biomedical researchers, industry executives and policy makers who will determine how new technologies affect the wellbeing of the public in the future.” (Edward J. Wawrzynczak, BSHM British Society for the History of Medicine, bshm.org.uk, October, 2016)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Helen Valier is Director of the Medicine & Society Program at The Honors College, University of Houston, USA. Her teaching and research interests fall broadly within western and colonial/postcolonial medicine and technology from late nineteenth to late twentieth century.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: A History of Prostate Cancer
Book Subtitle: Cancer, Men and Medicine
Authors: Helen Valier
Series Title: Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Modern History
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56595-2
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4039-8803-4Published: 17 August 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-73938-7Published: 31 May 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-56595-2Published: 05 August 2016
Series ISSN: 2947-9142
Series E-ISSN: 2947-9150
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 241
Topics: History of Britain and Ireland, History of Science, US History, Modern History, Social History, History of Medicine