Does bigger mean better? British perspectives on American cancer treatment and research, 1948.

Abstract

In the summer of 1948, a delegation representing the British Empire Cancer Campaign (BECC) toured North American cancer treatment and research facilities, and reported their observations back to their organization's executive board. This historical article contextualizes the British delegation's observations of US treatment and research, and discusses what the delegation made of the United States' new, "bigger" approaches to cancer surgery and chemotherapeutic research. I argue that the BECC delegation used their observations of US practice to reinforce a positive sense of British distinctiveness, thus reassuring themselves and their colleagues that Britain could still be a leader in the increasingly international field we now call oncology.