Re: Oncologists Judge Themselves the Best Judges of Cancer Treatments

Extract

I am writing in response to your August 20, 1997, News report on the survey designed by the American Enterprise Institute and the American Cancer Society ( 1 ). From the survey we learn, once again, how extensive the practice is of prescribing drugs “off-label” or, to put it more accurately, to prescribe drugs in instances when efficacy is unproved. It is understandable that desperation is the main reason oncologists give for off-label prescribing, and your report describes many as “willing to do anything to help their patients.” But this is an informed consent issue. How many cancer patients are told that there is little, if any, science behind many of their oncologists' well-intended actions? This could be the next survey idea for the American Cancer Society and the American Enterprise Institute.