In 1985 the media announced a new therapy for cancer. It was
expensive, labor-intensive, and toxic--but, they said, it worked.
How it worked is the story Ilana Lowy tells in "Between Bench and
Bedside," a compelling account of the clinical trials of
interleukin-2 at a major French cancer hospital. Her book offers a
remarkable insider's view of the culture of clinical
experimentation in oncology--and of how this culture affects the
development of new treatments for cancer.
Lowy, a historian of science who trained as an immunologist,
makes the life of the laboratory and the hospital comprehensible
and immediate. Before immersing us in the clinical drama, she fills
in the history behind the action--a background of chemotherapy and
radiation, controlled clinical trials, and the long line of
immunological approaches that finally led to interleukin-2. The
story then shifts to the introduction of interleukin-2 in a cancer
ward. Lowy conveys the clinical investigation as a complex,
multilayered phenomenon that defies the stereotypes of modern
biomedicine. In this picture, the miracle-makers and arrogant,
self-centered professionals of myth give way to moving images of
real people negotiating the tensions between institutional and
professional constraints, the search for a scientific breakthrough,
and the obligation to alleviate the suffering of a patient. The
result is a rare firsthand look at the multiple factors that shape
real-life clinical experiments and the institutional tangle and
emotional muddle that surround such trials--an invaluable view at a
time when medicine is undergoing such great and confusing
changes.
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