Scalpel or Rays? Radiotherapy and the Struggle for the Cancer Patient in Pre-World War II Germany. Preprint 124. A Dispute over Scientific Credibility: The Struggle for an Independent Institute for Cancer Research in Pre-World War II Berlin.

Helvoort, Ton van:

Published by Berlin: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 1999

About this Item

87 p. A good and very clean copy. - From the Introduction: Cancer treatment generally comes in four modalities. Traditionally, surgery of tumours was the most important form of treatment, while radiotherapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy were introduced as new forms of cancer treatment in the course of the twentieth century. While chemotherapy and immunotherapy did not become standard forms of treatment until after World War II, X-rays and radium were used as alternatives to the surgical knife in eliminating cancer cells soon after their discovery at the end of the nineteenth century. This essay concerns the way in which radiotherapy for the treatment of cancer took shape, especially in Germany, in the first decades of the twentieth century. The analysis concentrates on two aspects. The first aspect is that of the struggle between the representatives of orthodox medicine, those using the scalpel in the fight against cancer, that is to say, general surgeons, internists, gynaecologists, dermatologists and oto-laryngologists, and those who perceived in rays a new, separate form of treatment of the cancer patient, i.e. the radiotherapists-to-be. When X-rays and radium were found to be effective in the combat against cancer, radiotherapists sought to create a niche of their own within the existing ecology of medical professions. In his System of Professions, Andrew Abbott argues that the establishment of a profession is best analysed in terms of tasks, jurisdiction and competition. The present essay illustrates that this infighting over radiotherapy took the form of a struggle for the cancer patient and for jurisdiction over the use of the new techniques such as X-rays and radium. Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 550 MPIWG copy of the original brochure.

Seller Inventory # 1239486

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Scalpel or Rays? Radiotherapy and the Struggle for the Cancer Patient in Pre-World War II Germany. Preprint 124. A Dispute over Scientific Credibility: The Struggle for an Independent Institute for Cancer Research in Pre-World War II Berlin.
• Publisher: Berlin: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Gut
• Weight: 550 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Wissenschaftsgeschichte