Assemblages of Cancer : Experiences and Contexts of Breast Cancer in the Uk, France and Italy

A qualitative, social science study using multi-sited ethnography and qualitative interviews with patients and medical professionals that analyses breast cancer experiences and how they are shaped by the interaction with biomedical, institutional and cultural contexts in the UK, France and Italy. -- .

Assemblages of cancer illustrates the tensions in the experiences and context of breast cancer in Western Europe. Breast cancer is presented as a success story in oncology, especially in countries with advanced, universal healthcare systems. At the same time, individual experiences are shaped by uncertainty, local variability of healthcare provisions, and the need for patients to assemble information about the treatments, knowledge on healthcare systems navigation, and different processes of meaning-making to manage the uncertainty and variability characterising individual outcomes. The book explores both how individual bodies and experiences are transformed by different local medical practices, institutions and discourses of breast cancer and how patients need to find their own way in these contexts. Assemblages of cancer is based on ten years of ethnographic work with patients and medical professionals in the UK, France and Italy.