Date of publication
Sep 23, 2026
Category:
Article
`My #CA125 biomarker has halved!': how women with incurable cancer give meaning to biomedical knowledge on Instagram
by
Ms Jill van der Kamp
,
Dr Lotte Krabbenborg
,
Afke Wieke Betten
To understand how people give meaning to biomedical knowledge in their everyday lives, we studied 60 Instagram accounts of women living with incurable cancer. What sets them apart is that, although they are incurably ill, they sometimes live relatively long lives because of scientific developments. Thus, illness experiences become entangled with biomedical knowledge. We found that women discuss and interpret, for instance, test results or therapy modifications by using biomarkers as hashtags, e.g. #CA125. Biomedical knowledge is constantly mobilised and interpreted to juggle between living everyday lives and being incurably ill for a relatively long time. We also found how the visual element of Instagram allowed the women to make sense of their ever-changing realities, e.g. bodily changes. Studying spontaneous engagement with science on social media enables the perspectives of people who are not able to participate in organised public engagement, e.g. because of illness, to still be heard.