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Does Bigger Mean Better? British Perspectives on American Cancer Treatment and Research, 1948

Elizabeth Toon

From the Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease, Durham University, Queen's Campus, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, United Kingdom

Address reprint requests to Elizabeth Toon, Wolfson Research Institute, University of Durham, Queen's Campus, University Blvd, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 6BH, United Kingdom; e-mail: elizabeth.toon{at}durham.ac.uk

ABSTRACT

In the summer of 1948, a delegation representing the British Empire Cancer Campaign (BECC) toured North American cancer treatment and research facilities, and reported their observations back to their organization's executive board. This historical article contextualizes the British delegation's observations of US treatment and research, and discusses what the delegation made of the United States' new, "bigger" approaches to cancer surgery and chemotherapeutic research. I argue that the BECC delegation used their observations of US practice to reinforce a positive sense of British distinctiveness, thus reassuring themselves and their colleagues that Britain could still be a leader in the increasingly international field we now call oncology.

NOTES

Supported by Wellcome Trust Grant No. 068397, Constructing Cancers, 1945-2000, at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.

Author's disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.

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