Emotion Work during Colorectal Cancer Treatments.

The emotional texture of colorectal cancer treatments in a British oncology clinic provides insight into the ways that patients, their relatives, and health professionals deal with the suffering that cancer poses. In cancer care, verbalizing emotional reactions is understood as a healthy way of dealing with troublesome emotions. Yet, a type of silence, here understood as "not getting upset in front of each other," helps participants to preserve relationships. This idea contributes to our understanding of silence as a relational form of moral work that seeks to preserve the well-being of others.

Game-changing? When Biomarker Discovery and Novel Forms of Patient Work Meet.

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.