'Harnessing the little white cells': tracing practices of immunity in cancer

The project researched how novel immunotherapy treatments in cancer are shifting how cancer is approached, managed and experienced. Immunotherapy treatments are used in clinical practice and are also currently being tested as part of experimental clinical trials to treat patients with some forms of cancer. These treatments utilise the patient's own body to treat cancer and the scientific and clinical hope attached to these novel therapies is that they have the potential to extend survival time for patients. There are, however, clinical concerns regarding long-term treatment side-effects and toxicities, predicting response and prognosis, and management of patients' hopes and expectations. The collection consists of qualitative semi-structured interviews with patients, healthcare practitioners and scientists in a cancer centre in the UK to answer three research questions: (1) How are developments in immunology shifting conceptualisations of what cancer is and how it is treated? (2) How are patients' experiences and subjectivities configured by immunological developments in cancer treatment? (3) How is immunity in cancer constituted through the material practices of scientists, clinicians and patients within the context of personalised cancer medicine? It is an interdisciplinary project with science and technology studies, medical sociology and anthropology. This is a Research Fellowship in Humanities and Social Science awarded to Julia Swallow (PI Edinburgh then Sheffield).

本研究聚焦癌症新型免疫疗法对癌症认知、诊疗管理与患者体验的重塑作用。免疫疗法已应用于临床实践，目前亦作为试验性临床试验的组成部分，用于治疗部分亚型的癌症患者。此类疗法依托患者自身机体对抗癌症，学界与临床界对这类新型疗法寄予的科学与临床期许在于，其具备延长患者生存周期的潜力。然而，此类疗法亦存在若干临床关切议题，包括长期治疗的副作用与毒性反应、疗效与预后的预测，以及对患者希望与预期的管理。
本数据集收录了英国某癌症中心内患者、医疗从业者与科研人员的定性半结构化访谈资料，旨在回答三项核心研究问题：
（1）免疫学进展如何改变人们对癌症本质及其治疗手段的认知？
（2）癌症治疗领域的免疫学进展如何塑造患者的治疗体验与主体身份？
（3）在个性化癌症医疗的背景下，科研人员、临床医师与患者的实践活动如何建构癌症免疫的内涵？
本项目属于跨学科研究，融合科学技术研究、医学社会学与人类学等领域。该项目是授予朱莉娅·斯沃洛（Julia Swallow，原任职爱丁堡大学，后转至谢菲尔德大学，项目负责人（PI））的人文社科研究奖学金项目。