title: The birth of cancer policies in France.
abstract: This paper analyses the social conditions of emergence of cancer politics in France in the inter-war period. It examines the historical circumstances whereby various segments of the dominant class - surgeons, "scientist" doctors, philanthropists - and "society ladies" concurred to create and "anti-cancer movement" and to found a new discipline, i.e., cancerology, as well as a novel form of organizing medical care, i.e., cancer-centres. It then examines the process of construction of a representation of cancer as a scourge disease, combining elements of medical, scientific and lay discourses.
mesh_terms: D002173:Cancer Care Facilities / Q000266:history; D005602:France; D006291:Health Policy / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008495:Medical Oncology / Q000266:history*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D012962:Sociology, Medical / Q000266:history*; D014857:Warfare