This book traces the development of British answers to the problem of childhood cancer. The establishment of the NHS and better training for paediatricians, meant children were given access to experimental chemotherapy, sending cure rates soaring. Children with cancer were thrust into the spotlight as individuals' stories of hope hit the headlines.
Glutathione (GSH) has been described for a long time just as a defensive reagent against the action of toxic xenobiotics (drugs, pollutants, carcinogens), both directly and as a cofactor for GSH transferases. As a prototype antioxidant, it has been involved in cell protection from the noxious effect of excess oxidant stress, both directly and as a cofactor of glutathione peroxidases. In addition, it has long been known that GSH is capable of forming disulfide bonds with cysteine residues of proteins, and the relevance of this mechanism ("S-glutathionylation") in regulation of protein function has been well documented in a number of research fields. Rather paradoxically, it has also been highlighted that GSH—and notably its catabolites, as originated by metabolism by gamma-glutamyltransferase—can promote oxidative processes, by participating in metal ion-mediated reactions eventually leading to formation of reactive oxygen species and free radicals. Also, a fundamental role of GSH has been recognized in the storage and transport of nitric oxide (NO), in the form of S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO). The significance of GSH as a major factor in regulation of cell life, proliferation, and death, can be regarded as the integrated result of all these roles, as well as of more which are emerging in diverse fields of biology and pathophysiology. Against this background, modulation of GSH levels and GSH-related enzyme activities represents a fertile field for experimental pharmacology in numerous and diverse perspectives of animal, plant and microbiologic research. This research topic includes 14 articles, i.e. 4 Opinion Articles, 6 Reviews, and 4 Original Research Articles. The contributions by several distinguished research groups, each from his own standpoint of competence and expertise, provide a comprehensive and updated view over the diverse roles, the changing faces of GSH and GSH-related enzymes in cell’s health, disease and death.
Adventures in Childhood connects modern intellectual property law and practice with a history of consumption. Structured in a loosely chronological order, the book begins with the creation of a children's literature market, a Christmas market, and moves through character merchandising, syndicated newspaper strips, film, television, and cross-industry relations, finishing in the 1970s, by which time professional identities and legal practices had stabilized. By focusing on the rise of child-targeted commercial activities, the book is able to reflect on how and why intellectual property rights became a defining feature of 20th century culture. Chapters trace the commercial empires that grew around Alice in Wonderland, Peter Rabbit, Meccano, Felix the Cat, Mickey Mouse, Peter Pan, Eagle Magazine, Davy Crockett, Mr Men, Dr Who, The Magic Roundabout and The Wombles to show how modern intellectual property merchandising was plagued with legal and moral questions that exposed the tension between exploitation and innocence.
Eleven essays by historians and sociologists examine cancer research and treatment as everyday practice in post-war Europe and North America. These are not stories of inevitable medical progress and obstacles overcome, but of historical contingencies, cultural differences, hope, and often disappointed expectations.
This book traces the development of British answers to the problem of childhood cancer. The establishment of the NHS and better training for paediatricians, meant children were given access to experimental chemotherapy, sending cure rates soaring. Children with cancer were thrust into the spotlight as individuals' stories of hope hit the headlines.
The Cancer Problem offers the first medical, cultural, and social history of cancer in nineteenth-century Britain. It begins by looking at a community of doctors and patients who lived and worked in the streets surrounding the Middlesex Hospital in London. It follows in their footsteps as they walked the labyrinthine lanes and passages that branched off Tottenham Court Road; then, through seven chapters, its focus expands to successively include the rivers, lakes, and forests of England, the mountains, poverty, and hunger of the four nations of the British Isles, the reluctant and resistant inhabitants of the British Empire, and the networks of scientists and doctors spread across Europe and North America. The Cancer Problem: Malignancy in Nineteenth-Century Britain argues that it was in the nineteenth century that cancer acquired the unique emotional, symbolic, and politicized status it maintains today. Through an interrogation of the construction, deployment, and emotional consequences of the disease's incurability, this book reframes our conceptualization of the relationship between medicine and modern life and reshapes our understanding of chronic and incurable maladies, both past and present.
This book offers a comprehensive and inclusive insight into the history of prostate cancer and its sufferers. Until recently, little practical help could be offered for men afflicted with the devastating diseases of the genitourinary organs. This is despite complaints of painful urination from aging men being found in ancient medical manuscripts, despite the anatomical discoveries of the European Renaissance and despite the experimental surgical researches of the eighteen and nineteenth centuries. As diseases of the prostate, including prostate cancer, came to be better understood in the early twentieth century, therapeutic nihilism continued as curative radical surgeries and radiotherapy failed. The therapeutic ‘turn’ came with hormonal therapies, itself a product of the explosive growth of U.S. biomedicine from the 1940s onwards. By the 1990s, prostate cancer screening had become a somewhat ubiquitous but controversial feature of the medical encounter for American men as they aged, which greatly influenced the treatment pathways and identity of the male patient: as victim, as hero, and ultimately, as consumer.
Proteins, Pathologies and Politics presents an international and historical approach to dietary change and health, contrasting current concerns with how issues such as diabetes, cancer, vitamins, sugar and fat, and food allergies were perceived in the 19th and 20th centuries. Though what we eat and what we shouldn't eat has become a topic of increased scrutiny in the current century, the link between dietary innovation and health/disease is not a new one. From new fads in foodstuffs, through developments in manufacturing and production processes, to the inclusion of additives and evolving agricultural practices changing diet, changes often promised better health only to become associated with the opposite. With contributors including Peter Scholliers, Francesco Buscemi, Clare Gordon Bettencourt, and Kirsten Gardner, this collection comprises the best scholarship on how we have perceived diet to affect health. The chapters consider: - the politics and economics of dietary change - the historical actors involved in dietary innovation and the responses to it - the extent that our dietary health itself a cultural construct, or even a product of history This is a fascinating and varied study of how our diets have been shaped and influenced by perceptions of health and will be of great value to students of history, food history, nutrition science, politics and sociology.
Different people feel different emotions when they are diagnosed with cancer. Both today and a century ago, fear and hope, shame and disgust, sadness and joy are and were the emotions experienced by many cancer patients and their loved ones. But these emotions do not just have significance for the people who feel them. They have also exerted a surprisingly profound influence on how hospitals and laboratories dealt with cancer, how early detection campaigns portrayed it, and how doctors talked about it with their patients. Bettina Hitzer details the history of cancer and emotions in twentieth-century Germany and thus follows the cancer-associated transformations of emotional regimes, emotional politics, and emotional experiences through five different political systems. In doing so, the study underscores that political caesuras resonate in the immediate corporeality of the history of emotions.
An authoritative handbook covering the management of all types of cancer, with an emphasis on those aspects of care of the cancer patient which are of particular interest in the community, for example the presentation of cancer and palliative care. The specialist management of different types of cancer is also covered, with particular regard being paid to the requirements of shared care in the community and the supportive care needed for the treatment of side effects and complications.
