No trilho histórico do cancro: percepções de incurabilidade, invocações sagradas e rejeição da medicina científica

Abstract

Being a frustrating disease, as a result of the malignant nature of its growth and the resistance to the therapeutical attempts of scientific medicine, the human understanding of cancer depended on several aspects: the medical beliefs about the biological nature of neoplasmas, the ineffectiveness of medical treatments, and most of all, the atmosphere of suffering and pain. The present article approaches the immemorial idea of cancer incurability, present throughout the 18th, 19th and first half of the 20th century, pointing out some particular cultural aspects that surround this disease.