Doctoral Dissertation Research: How Oncologists and Patients Understand the Cancer Experience

根据美国癌症协会的数据，将近一半的美国公民在他们的一生中会被诊断出患有某种形式的癌症。2012年，大约40%的女性新诊断为乳腺癌或妇科癌症，30%的男性新诊断为前列腺癌或睾丸癌。确诊的患者往往需要广泛的治疗，这可能导致功能丧失或完全切除性别/性别的身体部位（例如，阳痿或不育或手术切除乳房或睾丸）。癌症患者所面临的这种性别身体的破坏，为审视日常生活中性别的突出性提供了一个独特的空间。我认为，当人们的身体被改变时，他们必须找到新的方式来体验和理解它们。本论文探讨了癌症和疾病的治疗如何挑战或加强定义性别身体的文化剧本。虽然癌症及其各种形式的治疗可以被理解为破坏性的，但它们对性别身体的影响在学术研究中被忽视了。为了获得关于性别和身体的医学论述，我采访了男性和女性肿瘤学家，知道他们的职位赋予他们独特的权威，可以为患者的性别问题提供解决方案。此外，我还采访了被诊断患有前列腺癌、睾丸癌、乳腺癌和妇科癌的男性和女性，以了解他们如何看待接受治疗后他们的性别身体的变化以及随后对自我和身份的变化。政策建议通常是根据只关注乳腺癌妇女经历的研究提出的。了解到这一点，研究各种形式癌症的男性和女性患者的经历，以整体改善患者护理是至关重要的。本论文也将为改善癌症护理提供重要的实证见解，并将在性别社会学、性别研究、身体社会学、文化和医学社会学等领域做出重大贡献。

According to the American Cancer Society, nearly half of all U.S. citizens will be diagnosed with some form of cancer in their lifetime. In 2012, approximately 40% of all new diagnoses for women were for breast or gynecological cancers, and 30% of all new diagnoses for men were for prostate or testicular cancer. Those diagnosed often need extensive treatment, which can result in the loss of function or removal entirely of gendered/sexed body parts (for example, impotency or infertility or the surgical removal of breasts or testicles). This disruption of the gendered body that cancer patients face provides a unique space to examine the salience of gender in everyday life. I argue that when people's bodies are altered, they must find new ways to experience and understand them. This dissertation examines how cancer and treatment of the disease can challenge or reinforce cultural scripts that define the gendered body. While cancer and its various forms of treatment can be understood as disruptive, their effects on the gendered body have been neglected in academic study. In order to access medical discourse surrounding gender and the body, I interview male and female oncologists, knowing that their position gives them the distinctive authority to prescribe solutions to the gendered concerns of their patients. In addition, I interview men and women who have been diagnosed with prostate, testicular, breast and gynecological cancer to find out how they view the changes to their gendered body and subsequent changes to self and identity from undergoing treatment. Policy recommendations are generally made based on studies focused solely on the experiences of women with breast cancer. Knowing this, it is essential to study the experience of male and female patients with various forms of cancer, in order to improve patient care overall. This dissertation also promises to make significant empirical insights to improve cancer care and will provide noteworthy contributions to the sociology of gender, gender studies, sociology of the body, and cultural and medical sociology.