Access to experimental drugs in terminally ill patients: a new idea?

摘要

The most recent version of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki's ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects1 states an important principle related to palliative medicine research, which is as follows: 32. In the treatment of a patient, where proven prophylactic, diagnostic and therapeutic methods do not exist or have been ineffective, the physician, with informed consent from the patient, must be free to use unproven or new prophylactic, diagnostic and therapeutic measures, if in the physician's judgment it offers hope of saving life, re-establishing health, or alleviating suffering. Where possible, these measures should be made the object of research, designed to evaluate their safety and efficacy