The article is based on ethnographic studies conducted by Dam at a hospital in Denmark where doctors are experimenting with a new type of cancer treatment in which the patient's own immune cells from the cancer tumor are used to try to cure cancer that cannot be cured in other ways.
In the article, Dam and Druglitrø develop the concept of "choreographies of nearness", inspired by Charis Thompson/Cussins and Mette Nordahl Svendsen, to explain how cells and tissues in practice become neither completely "self" nor completely "other", but something in between. They show how clinical routines and experimental practices shape these complex relationships. The article contributes with new and close empirical understanding of the personal, clinical and scientific work that goes into experimental treatment and new ways of conceptualizing the personal in personalized cancer treatment.
The full article is available here: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41292-025-00373-2