Off label use—label off use?

Abstract

During the last century broad medical progress arose from the development of treatment strategies from natural remedies and the industrial production of drugs. Where there used to be a direct relationship between the natural healer or physician recommending an individualised treatment, the pharmacist preparing a custom-made prescription and the single patient, there is now a drugs market with the pharmaceutical industry on the supplier side, the patient as consumer and physicians who ideally prescribe drugs based on evidence and according to pertinent guidelines. The reproducibility and quality of diagnostic procedures as well as the drug supply have increased and the general benefit for society and individual patients is obvious. Cancer patients have benefited significantly from this process and the overall cure rate of >70% in paediatric malignancies would not have been achieved without cytostatic drugs developed and provided by the pharmaceutical industry.