Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Med Anthropol. 2022 Feb-Mar;41(2):156-168. doi: 10.1080/01459740.2020.1860960. Epub 2021 Jan 14.
I analyze the promised efficacy of Pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy regime under clinical trial for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Drawing on anthropological fieldwork with patients and health professionals in a gastrointestinal cancer clinic in London, UK, I tease out the dynamics through which scientists and clinicians assemble personalized technologies to halt cancer growth in patients' bodies; what patients undergo in order to participate in these innovations; and the constraints that restrict the efficacy of these treatments. Beyond examining the treatment possibilities that clinical trials offer, I illuminate some of the gaps made visible when personalization happens from below.
我分析了 Pembrolizumab 的预期疗效，该药是一种正在临床试验阶段的免疫疗法，用于转移性结直肠癌患者。我借鉴了在英国伦敦一家胃肠癌诊所中对患者和医疗专业人员进行的人类学实地调查，梳理了科学家和临床医生如何将个性化技术用于阻止患者体内癌症生长的动态过程；患者为参与这些创新而经历的过程；以及限制这些治疗效果的限制因素。我不仅考察了临床试验提供的治疗可能性，还阐明了个性化治疗从底层出现时所显现出的一些差距。
