When Hope Runs Out, Cancer Patients Are Making Their Own DIY Immunotherapy Treatments

October 25, 2017

(Gizmodo) – Do-it-yourself treatments exist in a tricky ethical arena that tests the limits of how much agency we are willing to give patients in making decisions about their life and treatment. Increasingly, it is the view of mainstream medicine that when a person’s life is on the line, they should have the right to engage in high-risk treatments. Last month, the US Senate unanimously approved a bill that would allow terminally ill patients access to drugs that have gone through preliminary testing on humans, but not yet gained FDA approval. Similar right-to-try laws have already been passed in 37 states, some of which allow even patients with serious but not terminal illnesses to try experimental drugs.