Malignant [electronic resource] : how cancer becomes us / S. Lochlann Jain.

ISBN:

9780520956827

Title:

Author:

Jain, Sarah S. Lochlann, 1967-

Personal Author:

Jain, Sarah S. Lochlann, 1967-

Publication Information:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 2013.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (290 pages)

Contents:

Introduction: We Just Don't Know It Yet; 1. Living in Prognosis: The Firing Squad of Statistics; 2. Poker Face: Gaming a Lifespan; 3. Cancer Butch: Trip Up the Fast Lane; 4. Lost Chance: Medical Mistakes; 5. The Mortality Effect: The Future in Cancer Trials; 6. Inconceivable: Where IVF Goes Bad; 7. Can Sir: What Screening Doesn't Do; 8. Fallout: Minuets in the Key of Fear; 9. Rubble: Bakelite Bodies; Conclusion: Shameless; Acknowledgments; Notes; Index.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Cancer -- Government policy -- United States.

Cancer -- Research -- United States.

Cancer -- Risk factors -- Government policy -- United States.

Carcinogens -- Government policy -- United States.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2013

Publication Information:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 2013.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
362.196994 23	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Nearly half of all Americans will be diagnosed with an invasive cancer--an all-too ordinary aspect of daily life. Through a powerful combination of cultural analysis and memoir, this stunningly original book explores why cancer remains so confounding, despite the billions of dollars spent in the search for a cure. Amidst furious debates over its causes and treatments, scientists generate reams of data--information that ultimately obscures as much as it clarifies. Award-winning anthropologist S. Lochlann Jain deftly unscrambles the high stakes of the resulting confusion. Expertly reading across a range of material that includes history, oncology, law, economics, and literature, Jain explains how a national culture that simultaneously aims to deny, profit from, and cure cancer entraps us in a state of paradox--one that makes the world of cancer virtually impossible to navigate for doctors, patients, caretakers, and policy makers alike. This chronicle, burning with urgency and substance leavened with brio and wit, offers a lucid guide to understanding and navigating the quicksand of uncertainty at the heart of cancer. Malignant vitally shifts the terms of an epic battle we have been losing for decades: the war on cancer.

Author Notes

Jain S. Lochlann :

S. Lochlann Jain is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University and author of Injury: The Politics of Product Design and Safety Law in the United States .

Reviews (2)

Choice Review

Malignant: How Cancer Becomes Us defies categorization. It is a memoir of cancer diagnosis and treatment, an autoethnography on a sudden immersion into the culture of cancer, a scholarly investigation of cancer morbidity and mortality, and an essay on the unrecognized ubiquity of cancer in US society, interwoven with an exploration of identities. The title echoes Marjorie Gross's sharp-witted personal history, "Cancer Becomes Me" in the New Yorker in 1996, on the impact of her ovarian cancer. The author's own story forms the organizing structure for well-researched analyses of cancer realities. Jain (anthropology, Stanford) covers topics such as carcinogens produced by the very organizations that raise money for cancer research, the discouraging statistics on the lack of progress in treatment outcomes, and meanings of the term "survivor." These realities are juxtaposed with a denial that permeates everything from financial planning to cancer centers' cheerful patient information pamphlets. The book is compelling and engaging, a crucial read for everyone touched by cancer, past, present, and future--in short, all of us. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. M. D. Lagerwey Western Michigan University

Library Journal Review

Jain (anthropology, Stanford Univ.; Injury: Design and Litigation in the United States) takes readers through many less-pondered aspects of cancer in society as she goes through her own cancer diagnosis and treatment. Readers see cancer through the eyes of an anthropologist, looking at history and societal aspects of the disease and how it shapes American culture. Jain also examines sociology and politics, describing how the for-profit health-care industry and especially the insurance payments for cancer treatment are integral to our economy. Business can be linked to both cancer-causing chemicals and the pharmaceutical companies that sell highly priced treatments; some now even run the clinics that provide the treatment. The psychology of cancer is also considered, with the author explaining that the doctor-patient dynamic needs to be understood and there should be more equality in health care-at the moment, screening access and standard of care depends on race, gender, socioeconomic class, insurance, and location, among other factors. VERDICT For those interested in cancer biographies and anyone who would like to learn more about the place of cancer in society. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.