Luta contra o cancro e oncologia em Portugal

Estruturação e normalização de uma área científica (1839-1974)

Abstract

This work intends to outline the historical evolution of the fight against cancer and oncology science in Portugal. Following very closely the global movement of the first quarter of the 20th century, the portuguese organization of the fight against cancer surpassed some European countries, both on planning and edification of a project that became fundamental to medical and scientific national life. During the 20`s and 30`s, the risk triggered by the disease accompanied the deep transformation of the place occupied by medicine on public health, as well as its new role in a society that wanted itself to be molded under the sign of modernity. An anticancerous movement emerged then, mostly from a group of medical doctors connected to the academic world, in close link to the political cupolas of the time. Inserted between a growing medical specialty and the health needs of cancer patients, the Portuguese fight against cancer was the result of an association between several factors, exceeding the mere assimilation of new medical technologies or the creation of a proper space for specialized medical practice. It became a way to perform an intense health education program on behalf of the populations, a state of the art instrument for specialized medical formation, as well as a reference of scientific modernity in the Estado Novo context.