A symmetrical approach to mammal cancer: heterogeneity, regulation and embodiment

Abstract

Cancer is commonly described as the uncontrolled reproduction of abnormal cells in the body. This definition enacts the disease as a local process, whose temporality is linear. In this article we challenge this approach, from a case study on breast cancer, analysed from the actor-network theory. Starting from the conception of disease as a material-semiotic trajectory, we establish the role of regulation and the processes of pre-symptomatic diagnosis in the materiality of cancer. Echoing the proposal of Alfred North Whitehead, we define cancer as a potential object. Then, we describe how propositions are articulated in biomedical patients, affect their anatomy and establish an authentic embodiment, which acts as a socio-material assemblage. We conclude that it is necessary to think about interventions that consider the heterogeneity of the material aspects that come with cancer, conceived from this perspective.