Last year I read a book by one of the top oncologists in the U.S., who's been in the field for five decades and held senior positions at leading institutions. He did not have good things to say about the FDA.

In decades past, researchers could come up with ideas and use them on patients who had no other options, and often saved lives that way. The field advanced quickly. Now progress has slowed and clinical practice lags well behind the state of the art in research, largely due to FDA restrictions.

So I suspect the book's author is happy about this law. Here's the book: https://www.amazon.com/Death-Cancer-Pioneering-Oncologist-Wi...

The submitted article is quite interesting. It is a review of the new book The Death of Cancer: After Fifty Years on the Front Lines of Medicine, a Pioneering Oncologist Reveals Why the War on Cancer Is Winnable--and How We Can Get There by Vincent T. DeVita,[1] and includes many surprising details from the book's account of the history of cancer treatment research. We see a lot of gee-whiz submissions to Hacker News of press releases about untested "cures" for various diseases, many of which have not proven effective over the years that I have been reading Hacker News. If you are curious about how new medical research findings turn into standard medical practice--or don't--you will enjoy reading the article submitted here. I think I will read the book, as I grew up with a parent who was involved in cutting-edge medical research.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Death-Cancer-Pioneering-Winnable/d...