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The nebula of chronicity: dealing with metastatic breast cancer in the UK

In this article, I explore how the concept of chronicity is mobilised by different actors in reference to metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and the transformation of the condition as a consequence of medical innovations. I do so by using data collected in the UK between 2017 and 2019 through in-depth i...

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Autor principal: Greco, Cinzia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7612899/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35274583
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2022.2041547
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author Greco, Cinzia
author_facet Greco, Cinzia
author_sort Greco, Cinzia
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description In this article, I explore how the concept of chronicity is mobilised by different actors in reference to metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and the transformation of the condition as a consequence of medical innovations. I do so by using data collected in the UK between 2017 and 2019 through in-depth interviews with medical professionals involved in the treatment of MBC and with patients living with MBC. I show how chronicity appears as a multidimensional and uncertain concept, which I analyse through the image of the nebula. While the medical literature tends to consider MBC chronic or on route to chronicisation, the medical professionals interviewed were uncertain as to whether MBC can be considered a chronic disease, and attempted to discuss chronicity through survival times, the kind of management possible for the disease, and how it compares to other conditions more commonly considered chronic. In some cases, the patients considered the idea of chronicity a source of hope or a way to link their condition to those of people with other diseases; however, they generally rejected the definition as inappropriate for their experience of the illness. Analysing the fluid uses of the concept of chronicity in the case of MBC contributes to the debate within medical anthropology on how medical categories acquire different values and uses and on the circulation of meanings between the biomedical context and the patient experience.
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spelling pubmed-76128992022-06-25 The nebula of chronicity: dealing with metastatic breast cancer in the UK Greco, Cinzia Anthropol Med Article In this article, I explore how the concept of chronicity is mobilised by different actors in reference to metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and the transformation of the condition as a consequence of medical innovations. I do so by using data collected in the UK between 2017 and 2019 through in-depth interviews with medical professionals involved in the treatment of MBC and with patients living with MBC. I show how chronicity appears as a multidimensional and uncertain concept, which I analyse through the image of the nebula. While the medical literature tends to consider MBC chronic or on route to chronicisation, the medical professionals interviewed were uncertain as to whether MBC can be considered a chronic disease, and attempted to discuss chronicity through survival times, the kind of management possible for the disease, and how it compares to other conditions more commonly considered chronic. In some cases, the patients considered the idea of chronicity a source of hope or a way to link their condition to those of people with other diseases; however, they generally rejected the definition as inappropriate for their experience of the illness. Analysing the fluid uses of the concept of chronicity in the case of MBC contributes to the debate within medical anthropology on how medical categories acquire different values and uses and on the circulation of meanings between the biomedical context and the patient experience. 2022-03-01 2022-03-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7612899/ /pubmed/35274583 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2022.2041547 Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Article
Greco, Cinzia
The nebula of chronicity: dealing with metastatic breast cancer in the UK
title The nebula of chronicity: dealing with metastatic breast cancer in the UK
title_full The nebula of chronicity: dealing with metastatic breast cancer in the UK
title_fullStr The nebula of chronicity: dealing with metastatic breast cancer in the UK
title_full_unstemmed The nebula of chronicity: dealing with metastatic breast cancer in the UK
title_short The nebula of chronicity: dealing with metastatic breast cancer in the UK
title_sort nebula of chronicity: dealing with metastatic breast cancer in the uk
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7612899/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35274583
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2022.2041547
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