Radiations and the formation of an institutional ecology of cancer medicine in Portugal (1912-1948)

Abstract

The studies of radioactivity and the consequent flourishing of the sciences and industries related to the production of radiations left a distinctive influence in Portuguese medicine of early twentieth century. In this article I examine the ways in which the biomedical concept of cancer that emerged in that period was in close connexion with the development of “radiations’ economy” sustained by the clinical and scientific uses of radioactivity. I argue that such economy was grounded on “cancer” and “radiations” concepts and that both of these were constituted as a boundary objects that were capable of supporting (in the Portuguese context) a new institutional ecology of medicine through their mediation between different spheres of political, scientific, medical and industrial interests.