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Cancer and diabetes illustrate historical tensions and ongoing difficulties because their heterogeneity makes them hard to classify within a single framework. The study traces how cancer and diabetes were historically situated—cancer more patho-anatomical and diabetes more patho-physiological—and examines how modern classifications face new challenges. It argues that molecular biomarkers can move both diseases across previously prioritized classificatory dimensions, while reopening down-prioritised dimensions involves trade-offs.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":35,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/crossing-paths-historical-and-philosophical-perspectives-on-cancer-and-diabetes-classifications/353070/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/crossing-paths-historical-and-philosophical-perspectives-on-cancer-and-diabetes-classifications/353070.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"McGucket","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-31","2026-09-22",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":44},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why are disease classifications considered imperfect?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Disease classifications rely on prioritising some dimensions while downplaying others, and different diseases are not equally well characterised by every dimension. This creates tensions between historical classification systems and modern needs.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How did history shape the way cancer and diabetes were classified?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The article shows that cancer was historically treated as more patho-anatomical, while diabetes was classified more patho-physiologically. They were therefore organised using different classificatory dimensions.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What role do molecular markers play in modern classification?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Molecular markers enable reclassification such that the characterisation of diabetes and cancer can cross the classificatory dimensions historically prioritised. 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When diseases are classified according to different dimensions (topography, symptoms, morphology, aetiology, etc), some characteristics of the diseases are prioritised while others are downplayed. Moreover not all diseases are equally well characterised by a given dimension, and especially complex, chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes have proved difficult to classify because of their heterogeneity. Their classification created tensions historically and still present challenges today. In this article we juxtapose the difficulties of classifying diabetes and cancer historically with the challenges arising in modern classifications of the two diseases. We trace the history of classifying cancer and diabetes, and find that while cancer proved difficult to classify based on its physiological features, diabetes could not readily be situated anatomically and they were classified according to different dimensions: cancer as patho-anatomical and diabetes as patho-physiological. We then discuss the limitations that come with the adoption of these classifications and how they are currently being challenged by new scientific developments. We show that the use of molecular markers to reclassify diabetes 2 and cancer allows their characterisation to cross paths i.e. to move across the classificatory dimensions that had been prioritised historically. Reopening down-prioritised dimensions comes at a price, though, and, we outline challenges as well as opportunities faced by type 2 diabetes and cancer classification. Finally, we argue that the combination of philosophical and historical analyses is well suited to cast light on classificatory tensions and challenges.  \nKeywords Classification · Cancer · Diabetes · Biomarkers · Diagnosis  \nExtended author information available on the last page of the article  \n1 Introduction  \nThe ability to classify and diagnose disease is a matter of great importance and consequence to medical practice (Smart, 2014; Bowker & Star, 2000) . In clinical medicine, diagnoses and classifications for instance allow medical practitioners to assign a patient to a given specialty and offer the most fitting treatment and prognosis. In medical research they help to establish the inclusion and exclusion criteria in clinical trials, delineate the circumstances of drug approval, or conduct epidemiological studies (Jutel, 2009). And in health administration and public health, they play a central role as different disease categories give access to different services and status such as insurance reimbursement or sick leave, and for patients they shape patient identities and communities around certain diseases (Jutel, 2009) . Last, classifications and diagnoses are not just important for clinical, research and societal understandings of the disease, and for connecting between them (Kutschenko, 2011) . They also serve to make diseases intelligible across time (Rosenberg, 2003; Tybjerg, 2023) . Indeed, medical knowledge depends on comparing to past and current cases and this requires stability in naming and classifying across time.  \nNo one, however, is perfect and this is especially true for classifications and categorisations of disease. In the last decade, particularly complex chronic and non-transmissible diseases have been challenging our ways of classifying diseases (Broadbent, 2009; Fuller, 2018) . These are highly heterogeneous, multicausal diseases and they manifest both locally and systemically, which makes it difficult to","cbCaicnJ7Ozyzs1w","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaicnJ7Ozyzs1w","pdf",725003,24,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n## Disease classification and clinical consequences\n## Challenges from heterogeneity in chronic diseases\n## Dimensions and prioritisation in disease classification","[{\"question\":\"Why are disease classifications considered imperfect?\",\"answer\":\"Disease classifications rely on prioritising some dimensions while downplaying others, and different diseases are not equally well characterised by every dimension. This creates tensions between historical classification systems and modern needs.\"},{\"question\":\"How did history shape the way cancer and diabetes were classified?\",\"answer\":\"The article shows that cancer was historically treated as more patho-anatomical, while diabetes was classified more patho-physiologically. They were therefore organised using different classificatory dimensions.\"},{\"question\":\"What role do molecular markers play in modern classification?\",\"answer\":\"Molecular markers enable reclassification such that the characterisation of diabetes and cancer can cross the classificatory dimensions historically prioritised. This creates both opportunities and challenges, including trade-offs from reopening down-prioritised dimensions.\"}]","Crossing paths: historical and philosophical perspectives on cancer and diabetes classifications | PDF",1790102844]