[Revised entry by Anya Plutynski and Lucie Laplane on October 23, 2023.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Cancer is a major health problem worldwide; it is a leading cause of death, and with few exceptions, there have been steady increases in incidence and mortality (WHO, 2020). Perhaps not surprisingly, then, cancer is a central topic of biomedical research, drawing billions of dollars annually. In 2019, the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) allocated $5.74 billion in federal dollars, a $79 million increase over 2018 (NCI, 2019 – see the Other Internet Resources). A search for the term “cancer” in PubMed returns over three million…

Originally appeared on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Read More