Preventive Strikes: Women, Precancer, and Prophylactic Surgery

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Synopsis
Winner, 2011 Best Book in the History of Medicine, European Association for the History of Medicine and HealthModern scientific tools can identify a genetic predisposition to cancer before any disease is detectable. Some women will never develop breast or ovarian cancer, but they nevertheless must decide, as a result of genetic testing, whether to have their breasts and ovaries removed to avoid the possibility of disease. The striking contrast between the sophistication of diagnosis and the crudeness of preventive surgery forms the basis of historian Ilana Löwy’s important study.Löwy traces the history of prophylactic amputations through a century of preventive treatment and back to a long tradition of surgical management of gynecological problems. In the early twentieth century, surgeons came to believe that removing precancerous lesions—a term difficult to define even today—averted the danger of malignancy. This practice, Löwy finds, later led to surgical interventions for women with a hereditary predisposition to cancer but no detectable disease. Richly detailed stories of patients and surgeons in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom allow Löwy to compare the evolution of medical thought and practice—and personal choice—in these different cultures.Preventive Strikes aims to improve our understanding of professional, social, and cultural responses to cancer in the twenty-first century and to inform our reflections about how values are incorporated into routine medical practices.Ilana Löwy
Copyright:
2010

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
344 Pages
ISBN-13:
9780801898693
Related ISBNs:
9780801893643
Publisher:
Johns Hopkins University Press
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Nonfiction, Health, Mind and Body, Law, Legal Issues and Ethics, Medicine
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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