<story><title>Cancer expert given experimental treatments for incurable brain tumour</title><url>https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-20/melanoma-richard-scolyer-georgina-long-early-results/102879818</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>zdragnar</author><text>People with nothing to lose make fantastic targets for snake oil fraud.&lt;p&gt;Principally, I agree with right to try, but I&amp;#x27;m not sure what appropriate safeguards would look like.</text></item><item><author>Empact</author><text>A great example of why to support &amp;quot;Right to Try&amp;quot; laws. Every terminal patient could choose to contribute to our understanding of treatment while also possibly improving their outcome. Through self-experimentation we could dramatically increase the pace of progress.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Right-to-try_law&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Right-to-try_law&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ballenf</author><text>- Registration of alternative treatments with contact info (registered business address, etc.). Prevent fly-by-night hucksters from hiding in the dark.&lt;p&gt;- Require disclosure of ingredients&lt;p&gt;- Require disclosure of tests for contaminants&lt;p&gt;- Require disclosure of adverse advents&lt;p&gt;- Have a standardized form for all of the above. Kind of a &amp;quot;truth-in-lending&amp;quot; document but for alternative treatments.&lt;p&gt;- Allow licensed doctors more freedom to administer alternative treatments without fear of license loss, so long as patient consent is received. This could be allow weeding out of some of the actual snake oil, but would add cost.</text></comment>
<story><title>Cancer expert given experimental treatments for incurable brain tumour</title><url>https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-20/melanoma-richard-scolyer-georgina-long-early-results/102879818</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>zdragnar</author><text>People with nothing to lose make fantastic targets for snake oil fraud.&lt;p&gt;Principally, I agree with right to try, but I&amp;#x27;m not sure what appropriate safeguards would look like.</text></item><item><author>Empact</author><text>A great example of why to support &amp;quot;Right to Try&amp;quot; laws. Every terminal patient could choose to contribute to our understanding of treatment while also possibly improving their outcome. Through self-experimentation we could dramatically increase the pace of progress.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Right-to-try_law&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Right-to-try_law&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>DennisP</author><text>Everybody&amp;#x27;s terrified of the snake oil days, and almost nobody considers the way things were several decades ago, when cancer researchers were allowed to try things on patients without government approval, and we made much faster progress than we did after the FDA clamped down.&lt;p&gt;For details, see the book &lt;i&gt;The Death of Cancer&lt;/i&gt; by Vincent DeVita, director of the Yale Cancer Center and former director of the National Cancer Institute.</text></comment>