Immunotherapy is heralded as the 'fifth pillar' of cancer therapy, after surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and genomic medicine. It involves 'harnessing' patients' own immune system T-cells to treat cancer. In this article, I draw on qualitative interviews with practitioners working in oncology and patients in the UK, to trace metaphorical and discursive framing around immunotherapy. Immunotherapy aims to restore the functioning of the immune system to detect cancer (non-self), working with the self/non-self model that pervades immunology discourse more widely. Practitioners draw on metaphors that cement this self/non-self model, and that tend to depict the relationship between cancer and the immune system as an internal battle. Yet the discursive framing around immunotherapy also involves shifts that emphasize the body's own capacity to heal, where it is framed as 'gentle' or 'tolerable' on the body. Through this discursive shift, immunotherapy refigures the antagonism associated with the self/non-self model in the context of cancer. Analysing patients' embodied experiences of treatment, this article attends to the material realities and tensions provoked by this shift in discursive framing. This article contributes to feminist STS analyses of immunology discourse, and extends this literature by arguing that it is critical to address the material stakes of these discursive shifts by paying attention to patients' day-to-day experiences of treatment. The discursive framing of immunotherapy brings into being new forms of embodied patienthood in the context of cancer.

中文翻译：

---

让身体成为癌症治疗的活性剂：追踪免疫疗法的隐喻和重要性。


免疫疗法被誉为继手术、放疗、化疗和基因组医学之后的癌症治疗的“第五支柱”。它涉及“利用”患者自身的免疫系统 T 细胞来治疗癌症。在本文中，我利用对英国肿瘤学从业者和患者的定性访谈，来追踪围绕免疫疗法的隐喻和话语框架。免疫疗法旨在恢复免疫系统检测癌症（非自我）的功能，与更广泛地渗透到免疫学讨论中的自我/非自我模型一起工作。从业者利用隐喻来巩固这种自我/非自我模型，并且倾向于将癌症与免疫系统之间的关系描述为一场内部斗争。然而，围绕免疫疗法的话语框架也涉及强调身体自身治愈能力的转变，它被定义为对身体“温和”或“可忍受”。通过这种话语转变，免疫疗法重新调整了癌症背景下与自我/非自我模型相关的对抗。本文通过分析患者的具体治疗经历，关注这种话语框架的转变所引发的物质现实和紧张局势。本文对免疫学话语的女权主义 STS 分析做出了贡献，并扩展了该文献，认为通过关注患者的日常治疗经历来解决这些话语转变的实质性利害关系至关重要。免疫疗法的话语框架在癌症背景下形成了新形式的体现耐心。