This thesis is based on an ethnographic study of medical care in a Cancer Treatment Center (abbreviated CLCC in French) in the Paris area. Because it has become a chronic disease, cancer has strongly influenced the way we understand the therapeutic relationship. Indeed, patients actively participate in treatment and in some cases master complex techniques that they should not be afraid to apply to their own bodies. The empirical material collected (observations and drawings of medical consultations in which doctors announce the diagnosis and of subsequent medical care) highlights the work done by caregivers and patients to incorporate biotechnological objects (tube, pump, gastrostomy, bags, etc.). It also shows how the Therapeutic Patient Education (TPE) frames the transfer of skills from the caregiver/ educator to the self-care of the patient and works toward patient compliance, in others words, toward the physiological and psychological acceptance of this foreign body. Research results include the analysis of the trajectories of invasive medical devices and provides an in depth understanding of the work undertaken in the hospital to better patient acceptance of these technical objects, from the announcement of their therapeutic necessity to the patient’s return home.

Marine Royer is a designer (École Boulle) and an Associate Professor at the University of Nîmes (France) where she teaches both Social Sciences and Design Studies. She is Assistant-Director of PROJEKT, an interdisciplinary research laboratory whose research focused on social innovation by design. Her main research foci are care studies, design for health, design in public and social innovation. She also deals with ethnographic and design research-project about people in fragile situations (social, health and cultural issues).

Marine Royer did her graduate work at ENS Paris Saclay (Design Department), and received her doctorate in 2016 in Anthropology from the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS Paris & Ensci - Les Ateliers).