Article ID: CBB000954556

From the “Silent Killer” to the “Whispering Disease”: Ovarian Cancer and the Uses of Metaphor (2009)

unapi

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.

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Authors & Contributors
Krueger, Gretchen Marie
Howard Y. F. Choy
Aviles, Natalie B.
Löwy, Ilana
Roberto Taramelli
Skloot, Rebecca
Concepts
Medicine
Cancer; tumors
Disease and diseases
Molecular biology
Metaphors; analogies
Technoscience; science and technology studies
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
21st century
20th century, late
20th century, early
18th century
Places
United States
Germany
France
Spain
China
Brazil
Institutions
Enquête Permanente Cancer (France)
National Cancer Institute (U.S.)
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission
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