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

根据美国癌症协会的数据，近一半的美国公民在有生之年将被诊断出患有某种形式的癌症。2012年，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，这可能导致丧失功能或完全切除按性别/性别区分的身体部位(例如，阳萎或不育，或手术切除乳房或睾丸)。癌症患者面对的性别身体的这种破坏提供了一个独特的空间来审视日常生活中性别的突出。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。这篇论文考察了癌症和疾病的治疗如何挑战或强化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，但它们对性别化身体的影响在学术研究中被忽视了。为了了解围绕性别和身体的医学话语，我采访了男性和女性肿瘤学家，知道他们的地位赋予了他们独特的权威，可以为他们患者的性别关切开出解决方案。此外，我还采访了被诊断出患有前列腺癌、睾丸癌、乳腺癌和妇科癌症的男性和女性，以了解他们如何看待自己的性别身体的变化，以及随后在接受治疗后自我和身份的变化。政策建议通常是基于仅侧重于乳腺癌妇女经历的研究。认识到这一点，有必要研究男性和女性癌症患者的经验，以便全面改善患者护理。这篇论文还承诺为改善癌症护理提供重要的经验性见解，并将对性别社会学、性别研究、身体社会学以及文化和医学社会学做出值得注意的贡献。

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.