Changes in direction of cancer research over the 20th century : what prompted change : research results, economics, philosophy

This research examines the changes in cancer research and treatment over the 20th century through to the present date. The aim of the research is to consider which of three factors—research results, economics or philosophy—was most likely to have induced change. Although it is not an in-depth assessment of the current state of knowledge of cancer research, the thesis does provide an outline of critical changes in knowledge of both cancer cause and treatment. Treatments that are used routinely by conventional medicine are examined. Also investigated are areas of research that aroused interest in the earlier parts of the last century but were then ignored, only now being revisited. I examine whether economic factors guided research and whether that guidance was directed towards specific ends. The influence and extent of infiltration, if any, by the pharmaceutical industry into the sphere of medicine was also investigated. The philosophy of medicine is discussed, with particular emphasis on the differences between ethics and philosophy. The philosophy of the profession itself (or lack thereof) may have contributed to decisions on whether to adopt or discard particular research studies and treatments. I postulate that the medical system, with oncology as one sub-set, may be viewed using the Maturana and Varella (1980) concept of an autopoietic system.1 Using this analogy, the structural coupling of medicine with industry shows the change that this autopoietic system has undergone to survive. Whether the changes required for survival by the system then produce benefit for the greater environment—the public in general and cancer patients as a specific instance—is examined