This would prevent scarce new treatments from being used as a means of blackmailing patients. Any physician using such experimental options, however, should be obliged to report results promptly and comprehensively. While government agencies may recommend protocols, any physician should have the right to modify those protocols for the patient's benefit. The present clinical therapy testing system has turned out to be a nightmare of pseudoscientific arrogance. It is impossible to pinpoint a single treatment breakthrough issuing from this system which could not have been produced from more humane and efficient testing procedures.
Current methodology is predicated on a mistake and a sin.
The mistake lies in the false assumption that the randomized, blind-control design alone produces significant scientific results. The sin lies in treating human beings as laboratory animals. In addition to informing their patients of probable results and side effects from such experiments, participating physicians should disclose any possible conflict of interest, including and particularly, any compensation they or their sponsors or institutions may receive for enrolling patients in these trials. Criteria of treatment propriety shall be the province exclusively of patient and physician, not the insurer or any government agency or any advocacy group. The decision to choose a cancer therapy is one no patient takes lightly or capriciously.