Thanks to the rapidly expanding amount of medical information being made available freely to anyone who seeks it out, it can be envisioned that new treatments for various ubiquitous diseases, including cancer in any of its various forms, can be “uncovered” by a diligent searcher. I am not aware of any documented evidence of this having happened, though.
It is clear that the information provided by the patent and NIH databases can be “mined” to come close to the “edge” of any possible emerging treatment.
Once someone determines that a “new” treatment may be a candidate for further exploration, however, they must then turn to certified authorities for further exploration, such as by clinical trials that are carefully regulated by governmental bodies including the FDA, etc. Thus, a person who does not have full certification to test certain disease-related medical treatments will find the “end of the road” at this point.
Therefore, a searcher lacking such certifications, but who may nonetheless be full technically qualified to evaluate potential treatmentoptions, will need to seek out a cooperative certified entity, which may be a clinician or research doctor or even a journalist, to proceed further.
It is also clear that the tools used in various aspects of medical research, are not all necessarily created or even necessarily actually used by fully certified medical individuals.