Patients need transparency around how new medicines are approved | Ranjana Srivastava

When new treatments are announced, patients are often unaware of the strength of the evidence used to grant regulatory approval

One of my most uncomfortable professional moments occurred some years ago when I cared for a successful business owner with advanced cancer. Following a stable period for years, her illness eventually entered a rapid trajectory when successive therapies began failing. It was around this time that I broached my concern that treatments were causing more harm than good, and the way to stop feeling so awful was by eschewing further toxic therapies in favour of symptom management.

With the help of an intuitive sister, she was beginning to come around to an acceptance of her mortality, which is why I was surprised to see her in the chemotherapy chair, supervised by a dejected nurse who told me the patient had been prescribed a Hail Mary". Hail Mary, a Christian utterance of holy intervention, crossed into the realm of oncology when pressured doctors began prescribing futile treatments to desperate patients.