Cure in cancer: an improbable ambition

Abstract

This article proposes a reflection about the notion of cure and its uses in oncology. A first point examines its implementation as the utmost medical and political ambition of the founding mission of French oncology. A second axis points to its various social accommodations, observing the different figures and misadventures of the concept confronted with the test of the incurability of numerous cancers. Finally, a third part of the article focuses on the effects of the chronic uncertainty inherent in oncology. Based on empirical research made from the late 1900s to our days, inspired by grounded theory, interactionism and under the influence of Anselm Strauss, this reflection can be seen as an abstract of the author’s work on French oncology. Medical uncertainty and its individual and collective management are at the core of this work.