Wed 1.02.13 | Fear, Risk, and Breast Cancer

Robert A. Aronowitz, Unnatural History: Breast Cancer and American Society Cambridge U. Press, 2007

 

 

 

Breast cancer may be the most feared disease that women face: one out of every eight women is expected to get the illness in her lifetime. But how much of that fear is produced not by biology but society? Historian and medical doctor Robert Aronowitz has written a social history of breast cancer from the 19th century to the present. He argues that overzealous screening -- detecting cells that would never advance into full-blown cancer -- has fueled a sense of risk that serves neither patients nor the medical understanding of the disease. (Encore presentation; access the audio here.)

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