Within the context of the wider debate over the function of metaphor in medical discourse, this article examines the origins and history of ovarian cancer's reputation as a silent killer. Drawing upon the work of Deborah Lupton and others, it argues that, while the use of metaphor is inevitable, the role of specific metaphors in defining notions of reality deserves close attention. In the case of ovarian cancer, the deadly nature of the disease and the very real difficulties of diagnosis and treatment created a sense of hopelessness that changed little from the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Ovarian cancer was largely excluded from the war on cancer which was mounted after World War I, and medical literature, stressing its apparently symptomless nature, almost uniformly applied the metaphor of the silent killer to the disease. Following World War II, growing attention was given to the treatment and epidemiology of ovarian cancer, but it was not until near the end of the twentieth century that sustained attention was given to its symptomatology. Both researchers and lay activists directly challenged ovarian cancer's image as the silent killer and argued that, in the absence of effective screening techniques, a greater recognition of patient-reported symptoms might lead to more timely diagnoses. Their efforts led to the definition of a pattern of early symptoms which gained "official" recognition in the US in June 2007.
...More
Book
Johach, Eva;
(2008)
Krebszelle und Zellenstaat: Zur medizinischen und politischen Metaphorik in Rudolf Virchows Zellularpathologie
(/isis/citation/CBB000953296/)
Chapter
Shelley W. Chan;
(2016)
Narrating Cancer, Disabilities, and aids: Yan Lianke’s Trilogy of Disease
(/isis/citation/CBB974132031/)
Book
Pinell, Patrice;
(2002)
The Fight Against Cancer: France, 1890-1940
(/isis/citation/CBB000201914/)
Article
Clow, Barbara;
(2001)
Who's Afraid of Susan Sontag? or, the Myths and Metaphors of Cancer Reconsidered
(/isis/citation/CBB000770469/)
Article
Kügler, Daniel;
Holzhausen, Hans-Jürgen;
(2001)
Historische Entwicklung der Graduierung von malignen Weichgewebstumoren
(/isis/citation/CBB000100341/)
Article
Jasen, Patricia;
(2002)
Breast Cancer and the Language of Risk, 1750-1950
(/isis/citation/CBB000200021/)
Article
Maehle, Andreas-Holger;
(2011)
Ambiguous Cells: The Emergence of the Stem Cell Concept in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
(/isis/citation/CBB001220424/)
Article
Morabia, Alfredo;
(2011)
Épidémiologie politique des études cas-témoins (1926--1950)
(/isis/citation/CBB001036210/)
Article
Robin W Scheffler;
Natalie B Aviles;
(April 2022)
State planning, cancer vaccine infrastructure, and the origins of the oncogene theory
(/isis/citation/CBB592344187/)
Thesis
Barker, Crispin Robert Claude;
(2008)
From Atom Bomb to the “Genetic Time Bomb”: Telomeres, Aging, and Cancer in the Era of Molecular Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001561394/)
Article
Ménoret, Marie;
(2002)
The Genesis of the Notion of Stages in Oncology: The French Permanent Cancer Survey (1943--1952)
(/isis/citation/CBB000202050/)
Article
Krueger, Gretchen;
(2004)
Death Be Not Proud: Children, Families, and Cancer in Postwar America
(/isis/citation/CBB000630237/)
Article
HelVoort, Tot. Van;
(2001)
Scalpel or Rays? Radiotherapy and the Struggle for the Cancer Patient in Pre-Second World War Germany
(/isis/citation/CBB000101389/)
Book
Krueger, Gretchen;
(2008)
Hope and Suffering: Children, Cancer, and the Paradox of Experimental Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB000850373/)
Article
Enrique Wulff;
(2023)
Clinical Diagnosis and Cancer Probe: A History of Unity and Mass Migration
(/isis/citation/CBB882048061/)
Thesis
Levina, Marina;
(2006)
The Stake and the Chip: Biomedical and Genomic Discourse and the Management of Difference in Popular Culture
(/isis/citation/CBB001560550/)
Article
Wunderlich, Volker;
(2008)
“Mit Papier, Bleistift und Rechenschieber.” Der Krebsforscher Hermann Druckrey im Internierungslager Hammelburg (1946--1947)
(/isis/citation/CBB001220569/)
Chapter
Roberto Taramelli;
(2016)
Una nuova visione del cancro attraverso le lenti della dinamica dei sistemi
(/isis/citation/CBB225293248/)
Article
Teixeira, Luiz Antonio;
Löwy, Ilana;
(August 2011)
Imperfect tools for a difficult job: Colposcopy, ‘colpocytology’ and screening for cervical cancer in Brazil
(/isis/citation/CBB003851329/)
Book
Skloot, Rebecca;
(2010)
The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
(/isis/citation/CBB438514916/)
Be the first to comment!