October 23, 2020
In 1922 Peruvian physician Juan José Mostajo like other Peruvian physicians at the time supported enrolling a broad coalition of State health agencies, physicians, and lay people in campaigns to broadcast the early signs of cancer.
The Anti-Cancer League and public outreach for cancer control in Peru focuses on public outreach, a topic which is drawing more attention among the historiography of cancer in Latin America.
Researcher Raul Necochea, Associate Professor of the Department of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, analyses the rise and decline of the anti-cancer league, the first cancer control public outreach scheme in Peru. It started in the 1910s, but ground to a standstill as it attained official governmental recognition in 1926 as the Liga Anti-Cancerosa.
This paper explains the developments leading to that earliest effort to enlist a coalition of State health agencies, physicians, and lay people in prevention campaigns as well as the medical and political reasons for its decline.
