Cancer on trial [[electronic resource] ] : oncology as a new style of practice / / Peter Keating and Alberto Cambrosio

• Autore: Keating Peter <1953->
• Pubblicazione: Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 2012
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (476 p.)
• Disciplina: 616.99/40072
• Soggetto topico: Oncology - Research; Cancer - Research
• Soggetto genere / forma: Electronic books.
• Altri autori: CambrosioAlberto <1950->
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: From "nonentity" to global network: the rise of a new style of biomedical practice -- An early career in clinical oncology -- About this book -- A capsule history of cancer clinical trials -- Cancer clinical trials as a new style of practice -- The protocol -- Before there were trials -- Cancer hospitals and cancer institutes -- Diagnosing cancer -- Treating cancer -- Prognosticating cancer -- Testing therapies -- The emergence of clinical cancer research (1955-66) -- A landmark clinical trial -- Curing leukemia: the vamp trial -- A collective undertaking -- The elements of innovation -- What about the patients? -- The collective turn: cooperative groups as epistemic organizations -- Assembling the US cooperative system -- Screening for drugs: from mice to humans -- Tinkering with the cooperative group structure -- Meanwhile in Europe -- Clinical trial statistics -- What is a random sample? -- What is statistical significance? -- Statisticians, statistics, and early cooperative clinical trials -- Statisticians at the NIH -- Statisticians in Paris -- Fabricating the tools of the trade -- Controversial methods -- The emergence of the phase system -- Criticism and the redefinition of clinical cancer trials as an autonomous form of research -- Clinical cancer research under fire -- The reorganization of screening and clinical trials in the United States -- Surgery and radiotherapy in the cooperative groups -- An avalanche of numbers from the new style of practice (1965-89) -- A web of trials -- Breast cancer and its trials -- The lessons of the breast cancer trials -- The emergence of combination chemotherapy -- The multiple meanings of breast cancer trials -- Statisticians, data centers, and the organization of large-scale clinical trials -- Centers of calculation: us statisticians and the data center -- The mechanics of data production -- Meanwhile in Europe, take two -- Back in the USA: group statisticians and NCI statisticians -- Insiders' dissent: the randomization debate -- A relational space of substances and regimens -- The clinical evaluation of substances -- Screening substances: the animal screen -- Procuring compounds -- Oncopolitics? reshaping collaborative research -- Centralization or coordination? the European debate -- Clinical trials as clinical research: the US debate -- Oncology in the community -- Targeted therapy, targeted trials (1990-2006) -- Second interlude: molecular biology and oncogenes -- The rise of molecular biology -- Cancer and molecular biology: 1960-80 -- The clinical isolation of human oncogenes -- Oncogenes and oncoproteins since 1982 -- Magic bullets? the Gleevec trials -- Molecular biology and targeted substances -- The trials of a targeted therapy -- Where did Gleevec come from? -- Monitoring data, managing risks -- A medical oncologist and his patients -- Patients and activists -- Targeted therapy and clinical cancer research -- Introduction: molecular biology and translational research -- Molecular biology and the US cooperative groups -- The reorganization of the drug discovery process and the transformation of the NCI screen -- Clinical trials in a targeted age -- More oncopolitics -- Looking back and looking forward -- The observational alternative to clinical cancer trials -- Comparative effectiveness and clinical trials.
• Sommario/riassunto: Until the early 1960's, cancer treatment consisted primarily of surgery and radiation therapy. Most practitioners then viewed the treatment of terminally ill cancer patients with heroic courses of chemotherapy as highly questionable. The randomized clinical trials that today sustain modern oncology were relatively rare and prompted stiff opposition from physicians, who were loath to assign patients randomly to competing treatments. Yet today these trials form the basis of medical oncology. How did such a spectacular change occur? How did medical oncology pivot from a nonentity and, in some regards, a reviled practice to the central position it now occupies in modern medicine? In Cancer on Trial Peter Keating and Alberto Cambrosio explore how practitioners established a new style of practice, at the center of which lies the cancer clinical trial. Far from mere testing devices, these trials have become full-fledged experiments that have redefined the practices of clinicians, statisticians, and biologists. Keating and Cambrosio investigate these trials and how they have changed since the 1960's, all the while demonstrating their significant impact on the progression of oncology. A novel look at the institution of clinical cancer research and therapy, this book will be warmly welcomed by historians, sociologists, and anthropologists of science and medicine, as well as clinicians and researchers in the cancer field.
• Titolo autorizzato: Cancer on trial
• ISBN: 1-283-36261-9; 9786613362612; 0-226-42893-1
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910457715103321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II