Exhibition: Cancer Revolution at the Science Museum
Identifying gaps in the research and narrative
I caught the ‘Cancer Revolution’ exhibition at London’s Science Museum just before it closed this weekend, and here are my thoughts. The opening blurb declares: “This exhibition shares a story of hope. Find out how far we’ve come in prevention, diagnosis and treatment.” Through case studies of patients, clinicians and scientists working in cancer research, the small but densely curated exhibition takes us through the advancements that have been made in tackling cancer’s ‘grand challenges’.
Some of the artefacts are astonishing, including a machine used to deliver x-ray radiotherapy to breast cancer patients in 1903, and a surgeon’s knife from 1860. Some are heartwarming, such as the trowel a patient used in her allotment as she recovered from cancer treatment, helping her to heal, or the beaded necklaces created by a 9-year-old cancer patient to mark the milestones of his treatment. Interwoven with these were plenty of standard exhibition texts and videos explaining what cancer actually is, and how scientists have gone about finding treatments.
It was a bit of a busman’s holiday for me, I suppose, as I’m much more clued up on the jargon than your average Joe, having had cancer twice. There were plenty of items I recognised, such as a timeline showing when certain chemo drugs were discovered, three of which I’d had myself.
I particularly appreciated the videos explaining about some of the astonishingly well-coordinated international teams working together to tackle some of the biggest challenges, such as sequencing the DNA of hundreds of cancers, or using space technology and virtual reality to enable surgeons to navigate their way round virtual tumours. There were 3D prints of tumours which surgeons could ‘practice’ on for particularly complex surgeries. Accounts of cyberknife radiotherapy from the Christies in Manchester. Reassurances from scientists working with labrats that they keep them under humane conditions. Petri-dish demonstrations of the efficacy of new drugs on BRCA cancer cells.
One of the most moving sections was a small room where artefacts were shared by relatives of people who had died. The screwdriver set of someone’s dad, which he gave to his son as his final act. The diary of a husband in the last few days of his wife’s life. Not an exhibition for those who might be easily triggered.
With Cancer Research UK as the ‘Expert Partner’ and Pfizer as the ‘Principal Sponsor’, the focus of the exhibition was always going to be on the clinical and medical aspect of the disease, rather than social. However, the advancements in detection and treatment which the exhibition celebrates are leading to more and more people surviving cancer, and living long lives once their treatment is over. For example, 80% of childhood cancers are now survived, and many more adult cancers are treatable, leaving millions of people globally living ‘with and beyond cancer’. The omission of a section on quality of life, and the impact of cancer treatment on the future lives of patients, is a glaring one. And one I will be addressing in my research, so watch this space.