Since the 1970s, the origin of cancer is being explored from the point of view of the Somatic Mutation Theory (SMT), focusing on genetic mutations and clonal expansion of somatic cells. As cancer research expanded in several directions, the dominant focus on cells remained steady, but the classes of genes and the kinds of extra-genetic factors that were shown to have causal relevance in the onset of cancer multiplied. The wild heterogeneity of cancer-related mutations and phenotypes, along with the increasing complication of models, led to an oscillation between the hectic search of ‘the’ few key factors that cause cancer and the discouragement in face of a seeming ‘endless complexity’. To tame this complexity, cancer research started to avail itself of the tools that were being developed by Systems Biology. At the same time, anti-reductionist voices began claiming that cancer research was stuck in a sterile research paradigm. This alternative discourse even gave birth to an alternative theory: the Tissue Organization Field Theory (TOFT). A deeper philosophical analysis shows limits and possibilities of reductionist and anti-reductionist positions and of their polarization. This book demonstrates that a radical philosophical reflection is necessary to drive cancer research out of its impasses. At the very least, this will be a reflection on the assumptions of different kinds of cancer research, on the implications of what cancer research has been discovering over 40 years and more, on a view of scientific practice that is most able to make sense of the cognitive and social conflicts that are seen in the scientific community (and in its results), and, finally, on the nature of living entities with which we entertain this fascinating epistemological dance that we call scientific research. The proposed Dynamic and Relational View of carcinogenesis is a starting point in all these directions.
...MoreReview Anya Plutynski (2017) Review of "Philosophy of Cancer: A Dynamic and Relational View". History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences (p. 1).
Similar Citations
Article
Rigal, Christelle S.;
(2008)
Neo-clinicians, Clinical Trials, and the Reorganization of Medical Research in Paris Hospitals after the Second World War: The Trajectory of Jean Bernard
(/isis/citation/CBB000931179/)
Thesis
Marissa Anne Mika;
(2015)
Research Is Our Resource: Surviving Experiments and Politics at an African Cancer Institute, 1950 to the Present
(/isis/citation/CBB954339362/)
Article
Kohli-Laven, Nina;
Bourret, Pascale;
Keating, Peter;
Cambrosio, Alberto;
(2011)
Cancer Clinical Trials in the Era of Genomic Signatures: Biomedical Innovation, Clinical Utility, and Regulatory-Scientific Hybrids
(/isis/citation/CBB001034675/)
Book
Cornwall, Claudia;
(2013)
Catching Cancer: The Quest for Its Viral and Bacterial Causes
(/isis/citation/CBB001213235/)
Thesis
Bowers, Neil Thomas;
(2006)
A Historical Discourse Analysis of the Cancerous and Non-Cancerous Body in Secondary Biology Textbooks
(/isis/citation/CBB001560997/)
Article
Sharma, Padmanee;
Allison, James P.;
(2012)
Lloyd J. Old (1933--2011)
(/isis/citation/CBB001320473/)
Article
Das, Sukta;
(2011)
Evolution of Three Premier Cancer Institutes of India---TMC, CNCI & CIWIA---An Assessment
(/isis/citation/CBB001024498/)
Book
Wapner, Jessica;
(2013)
The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level
(/isis/citation/CBB001213249/)
Article
Arjun Devanesan;
(2020)
Medical nihilism: The limits of a decontextualised critique of medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB328328676/)
Article
Hawgood, Barbara J.;
(2013)
Rosemary Biggs MD FRCP (1912--2001) and Katharine Dormandy MD FRCP (1926--78): from Laboratory To Treatment and Care of People with Haemophilia
(/isis/citation/CBB001200766/)
Article
Noguera-Solano, Ricardo;
Ruiz-Gutierrez, Rosaura;
Rodriguez-Caso, Juan Manuel;
(2013)
Genome: Twisting Stories with DNA
(/isis/citation/CBB001213636/)
Article
Anya Plutynski;
(2021)
Is cancer a matter of luck?
(/isis/citation/CBB401173230/)
Book
Anya Plutynski;
(2018)
Explaining Cancer: Finding Order in Disorder
(/isis/citation/CBB100511988/)
Article
Peter Keating;
Alberto Cambrosio;
Nicole C. Nelson;
(2016)
“Triple negative breast cancer”: Translational research and the (re)assembling of diseases in post-genomic medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB354121073/)
Article
Lisa Lindén;
(July 2021)
Moving Evidence: Patients’ Groups, Biomedical Research, and Affects
(/isis/citation/CBB080289080/)
Article
Centellas, Kate M.;
Smardon, Regina E.;
Fifield, Steve;
(2014)
Calibrating Translational Cancer Research: Collaboration without Consensus in Interdisciplinary Laboratory Meetings
(/isis/citation/CBB001421196/)
Chapter
Toon, Elizabeth;
(2012)
Measured Responses: British Clinical Researchers and Therapies for Advanced Breast Cancer in the 1960s and 1970s
(/isis/citation/CBB001214250/)
Article
Leung, Danny C. K.;
(2008)
Thomas Clifford Allbutt and Comparative Pathology
(/isis/citation/CBB000831686/)
Book
Skloot, Rebecca;
(2010)
The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
(/isis/citation/CBB438514916/)
Article
Mazur, Allan;
Rothman, Stanley;
Lichter, S. Robert;
(2001)
Biases about Man-made Cancer among Researchers
(/isis/citation/CBB000100621/)
Be the first to comment!