One truth has not changed from the time of Hippocrates until today: when faced with desperate patients, doctors often do not have the heart—or, more accurately, they have too much heart—to do nothing. And so a doctor, as desperate as the patient, may try anything, including things he or she knows will not work as long as they will not harm. At the least, the patient will get some solace. One cancer specialist concedes, “I do virtually the same thing myself. If I’m treating a teary, desperate patient, I will try low-dose alpha interferon, even though I do not believe it has ever cured a single
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