Cancer research at the end of the twentieth century: implications for the organization of the research agenda in Brazil

Abstract

This article describes the trajectory of cancer research in the late twentieth century, highlighting the main changes in the scientific paradigm that affected in the production of biomedical knowledge on the subject. The text discusses the emergence of genome sequencing programs in the 1990s, internationally, and in the Brazilian case, analyzes the country’s responses to the development of the so-called “Molecular Biology of Cancer” in the state of São Paulo. The objective of the article is to reveal the instruments adopted by the scientific and technological policies in the country, and specifically in the state of São Paulo, in order to promote a scientific field in the regional plan.