Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Embodied Risk
1. Biopsy
2. Classifications
3. Borderline Lesions
4. In Situ Cancers
5. The Origins of Screening
6. The Generalization of Screening
7. Heredity
8. The New Surgical Radicalism
Conclusion: Uncertainty
Notes
Index

About the Author

Ilana Lowy is a senior researcher at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Science.

Reviews

Splendid... This is a major study for doctors and historians alike. Medical History Elegantly captures the history of the medicine and the politics, showing how they are interlinked. Lancet A riveting and tragic story. -- Iona Heath International Journal of Epidemiology A valuable contribution to the historical scholarship on risk, surgery and cancer, and one can only wish that it will influence current discussions around the topic. -- Thomas Schlich Nuncius Preventive Strikes, the work of a gifted scholar, is an ambitious contribution to cancer history. -- James S. Olson Social History of Medicine Lowy makes very clear the price that patients continue to pay for medicine's ignorance of the lessons of its history. She has done us all a service. -- Iona Heath Social History of Medicine Penetrating, witty... A major study for doctors and historians alike. -- Christopher Lawrence Medical History Preventive Strikes: Women, Precancer, and Prophylactic Surgery elegantly captures the history of the medicine and the politics. -- Sander L. Gilman Lancet This book deserves a broad audience beyond the historians of medicine and health policy to which it is most clearly addressed... The questions [Lowy] tackles are of considerable importance both to the history of twentieth-century medicine and to contemporary medical policy. -- Margaret Marsh American Historical Review Clearly of relevance to scholars in a number of fields, certainly beyond that of medical history. Reviews in History Point[s] to a much deeper understanding of the complex interdependencies that exist between womens' bodies, medicine, technologies, policy makers, health activists, the health industry, and the press... clearly of relevance to scholars in a number of fields, certainly beyond that of medical history. -- Yolanda Eraso Reviews in History Ambitious, insightful, and invaluable. Bulletin of the History of Medicine This is how contemporary history of medicine-and the role of science in medicine-should be written. -- Carsten Timmerman Isis Preventive Strikes provides an invaluable contribution to ongoing discussions about preventive screening tests by offering provocative arguments about their origins and surprising history. -- Eric Boyle Somatosphere Preventive Strikes offers a major contribution to critical cancer studies and the histories Lowy traces throughout this book are significant to all interested in medicine, biology, biomedicine, history of science and genetics, and gender and health. -- Kirsten E. Gardner Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences