Oncology is a field of medicine dedicated to the study of cancer treatment.
One of it's primary research methods involves the use of clinical trials, which is essentially conducting research for various new methods of cancer treatment on volunteers.
While there are hundreds of oncology research clinics in the United States alone, all of these clinics are registered and monitored by the US government so volunteer patients are legally covered against malpractice and abuse.
While patients DO sign waivers against some ill results that may arise from the testing, the legal protection they get is still ample protection against directly harmful effects brought about by malpractice and incompetence.
Also, in the case of the more radical alternative cancer treatment methods, normal medical and life insurance may not be able to cover the potential problems that could arise as a result of the trials.
However, the centralized board where oncology trial clinics register has safeguards against the possibility that insurance may not cover a special occurrence.
At the very least, they go over the conditions of the waiver with the volunteers first and point out any potential discrepancies that may keep them from collecting insurance or taking legal action in a worst case scenario.
If the patients still feel like taking the risk afterwards, then that's up to them.
With these safeguards in mind, a lot of cancer patients in the US alone are flocking to oncology clinics to volunteer for research.
Their reasons are wide and varied.
For one thing, while the clinics employ treatment methods that are different from the norm generally used by the medical community, at least the patients in these trials get treatment for free as a compensation for their being used as test subjects.
For another thing, a lot of cancer patients feel that the currently used treatment methods are insufficient, and thus they choose to risk themselves as test subjects in the hope that the clinic will be able to find a breakthrough cure that will be superior to that used by regular medical institutions.
There is also the altruistic feeling of cancer patients, who often feel that once they develop cancer they're living on borrowed time.
Hence, they decide to use what time they have left to contribute positively to society in the hopes that their effort will go a long way towards helping others who are likewise afflicted.
With all these different reasons, the number of cancer patients choosing to undergo oncology clinical trials as opposed to going to a regular hospital for chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, or other classic methods is steadily increasing.
Oncology clinics themselves are registered centrally with the government, and as such have their own share of legal protections, not the least of which is the reserved right to patent any breakthrough procedures they may find.
While this patent does not allow for monopolizing the treatment (because medical information is far too valuable for that) it does, at the very least, make allowances for royalties and due credit.
This centralized registration system also keeps the research up to date, as clinics can and must submit their findings on a regular basis.
This allows any of the registered clinics to cross reference each other's methods and their success rates, which lets them adapt each other's techniques in the hope of finding an ultimate solution to cancer.