The Fight Against Cancer: France 1890-1940

By the end of the nineteenth century, a disease known since antiquity dramatically hanged its social status to become the paradigmatic scourge of our time. This book is a socio-historical analysis of the rise and development of both anti-cancer association and anti-cancer policy, in France, during the inter-war period. It indicates how scientific, therapeutic, philanthropic, ethical, social, economic and political interests combined to organize an original policy which was, directly and indirectly, the cause of major changes in French medicine.

Patrice Pinell is Directeur de recherche at the Institut National de la recherche Medical (INSERM).