The Beauty of Cancer

Most people would not describe cancer as beautiful or elegant, particularly those of us that have survived the disease.  Even more, battling cancer may affect your sense of beauty, may alter your own body image. 

Jacqueline Firkin, associate professor in theater and film at the University of British Columbia wanted to give women something beautiful, something that opened the discussion surrounding cancer, beauty, and body image, something women could identify with.  She created 10 ball gowns fashioned after microscopic images of cancer cells and cellular processes hijacked in cancer.  The results are beautiful.

Below, I highlight my favourites:

Brain Cells on the Move: 

Although this image does not actually depict cancer, it demonstrates one of the cellular processes responsible for metastasis, the process by which cells migrate from the primary tumor to distant sites in the body.  Metastasis is a leading cause of cancer deaths and cancer scientists dedicate significant resources to understanding and thwarting this process.   In this image, the nerve cells, highlighted in green, move along the supporting cells, shown in red. 

The dress represents migration extremely well.  The red and green start at the shoulder and travel down the backbone of the dress, splitting in multiple directions.  It’s a picture of the unpredictable nature of metastasis.

Brain Invasion:

Like migration, invasion is also critical for metastasis.  In order to travel to distant sites in the body, cancer cells must interact with and invade through normal cells.  In this image, we see the cancer cells (in red and blue) breaching the barrier provided by the normal cell (in green and blue). 

The dress highlights this phenomenon  by showing converging red and blue fabric at the neck.  Separate populations exist at the base of the dress, highlighting that cancer cells and normal cells can exist as separate entities.

Dying Brain Cells:

Cell death is a natural process involved in cancer progression since normal cells can die in response to tumors.  This image shows brain injury where the faded areas are dead areas filled with dying neurons (brain cells) shown in green.

The striking feature of the dress lies in the contrast between black and red which continues onto the back of the dress.  On the front, we see just a small highlight of red, representing death.  This explodes on the back of the dress where death, and cancer, has taken over. 

For a complete gallery of photos, go to the website: http://archive.theatre.ubc.ca/fashioning_cancer/index.html

Jacqueline Firkin hoped to spark conversation and to support women with cancer with her efforts in fashioning cancer.  “My hope is that somehow through fashion, I might more closely tap into what a woman might be feeling about her body as she undergoes this disease, but simultaneously reflect a strength, beauty, resilience.”  Stand strong women! 

In addition to this noble goal, I see this project as beckoning both cancer scientists and patients to see some of the beauty behind this disease and the cellular process implicated.  Without exception, the human body and its inner cellular networks are merely complex pieces of art.