Acknowledgements -- Prologue: Three Patients -- 1. The Early History of Tumours of the Womb -- 2. Surgical Cures for a Cancerous Uterus -- 3. The Hope of Rays -- 4. The Pap Smear -- 5. Save the Women -- 6. Cervical Cancer Becomes a Sexually Transmitted Disease -- 7. Still a Woman's Scourge -- Epilogue: Ceryical Cancer in the Twenty-First Century -- Glossary -- Notes -- Further Reading -- Index
Summary
Cervical cancer is an emotive disease with multiple connotations. It has stood for the horror of cancer, the curse of femininity, the hope of cutting-edge medical technologies and the promise of screening for malignant tumours. For a long time, this disease was identified with the most dreaded aspects of malignancies: prolonged invalidity and chronic pain, but also physical degradation, shame and social isolation. Cervical cancer displayed in parallel the dangers of being a woman. In the 20th century, innovations initially developed to control cervical cancer - radiotherapy and radium therapy
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-213) and index
