From "Poisoning the Enemy Within" to "Guest-Host Interactions": Nanotechnology in Cancer Research

• In Event: 1555 - Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 4. In Pursuit of Health: Patient Care and Medical Knowledge

Abstract

Nanotechnology is widely recognized as an important new field and since the 2000’s nanomedicine has been a cutting-edge approach in cancer research. Unlike chemotherapy and radiation, which fight cancer by killing and poisoning, and in doing so also kill healthy cells and subsequently produce traumatic, disfiguring, painful, or even lethal side-effects, nano-oncology is based on a different paradigm. With the promise of drugs that preserve healthy tissue, distinguish between normal and cancerous cells, and identify, locate and target tumors directly, nanotechnology appears to signify a shift towards gentler, less invasive treatment options. Using semiotic approaches to attend to metaphors and language used by scientists in 30 recently-published peer-reviewed articles in leading nanotechnology journals, this paper asks whether the rise of nanotechnology in cancer research has indeed displaced the violent and war-like metaphors that have haunted cancer and its treatment for almost a century. It finds that cancer nanomedicine has moved away from violence and toxicity towards the notion of nano-bio interactions wherein nanostructures form affinities with cells, and interact and cooperate with bodily systems. While nano-researchers have developed a rich universe of evocative metaphors to justify their research, cancer nanomedicine has not managed to disengage itself from the language of war and violence entirely and continues to maintain strong discursive ties with contemporary military strategies.

Author

• Marzena Woinska, CUNY Graduate Center