If standard treatments for cancers fail, doctors sometimes【C1】_____drugs that haven’t been approved for that particular cancer type. In the Netherlands, this is now being done as part of a new kind of【C2】__, so we can get a better idea of which drugs work for what cancers—and which don’t. The results from the first 215 people show that a third of them saw some benefits from the “off-label” use of drugs. One or two completely【C3】_____. says Emile Voest at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam.

A new drug【C4】_____an approval process for【C5】__a specific disease, such as a certain kind of breast cancer. Once a drug is【C6】__for one purpose, doctors can prescribe it for another. This is typically done【C7】__an ad-hoc basis. One doctor will decide which drug, if any, might help a patient who has【C8】__other options. But there is no systematic way of reporting the outcomes to help other doctors in【C9】_____situations.

The approach can help some people, but it can also go horribly【C10】_____. In the 1980s, some heart drugs were widely used off-label in the United States. Later trials suggest that this【C11】_____50,000 premature deaths.

So Voest and his colleagues have set up a more【C12】_____way of using off-label drugs for cancers. The starting point is to【C13】__the whole genomes of tumours in people for whom standard treatments have failed, and to use that information to【C14】_____drugs that might help them.

In the trial, a person with a【C15】_____tumour type is assigned a drug that might help. Similar patients don’t take the same drug【C16】__eight people have tried it. If no one benefits, no more people with that tumour type will be given that drug. If at least one benefits, more patients are【C17】_____to see if others benefit too.

In the Netherlands, the trial has been 18 with the help of hospitals, charities and pharmaceutical companies, which are donating the drugs free of charge. The number of patients now【C19】________1,000.

Several other countries including Canada, Denmark and Italy are【C20】________the protocol recently. The findings of the trial should still be checked by proper randomised controlled trials, says Voest.

Anonymity is not something which was invented with the Internet. Anonymity and pseudonymity has occurred throughout history. For example, William Shakespeare is probably a pseudonym, and the real name of this【C1】________author is not known and will probably never be known.

Anonymity has been used for many purposes. A well-known person may use a pseudonym to write messages, where the person does not want people’ s【C2】_____of the real author【C3】__their perception of the message. Also other people may want to【C4】__certain information about themselves in order to achieve a more【C5】__evaluation of their messages. A case in point is that in history it has been【C6】__that women used male pseudonyms, and for Jews to use pseudonyms in societies where their【C7】__was persecuted. Anonymity is often used to protect the【C8】_____of people, for example when reporting results of a scientific study, when describing individual cases.

Many countries even have laws which protect anonymity in certain circumstances. For instance, a person may, in many countries, consult a priest, doctor or lawyer and【C9】_____personal information which is protected. In some cases,【C10】__confession in catholic churches, the confession booth is specially 【C11】__to allow people to consult a priest,【C12】_____seeing him face to face.

The anonymity in【C13】_____situations is however not always 100％. If a person tells a lawyer that he plans a 【C14】__crime, some countries allow or even【C15】__that the lawyer tell the【C16】__. The decision to do so is not easy, since people who tell a priest or a psychologist that they plan a crime, may often do this to 【C17】_____their feeling more than their real intention.

Many countries have laws protecting the anonymity of tip-offs to newspapers. It is regarded as【C18】________ that people can give tips to newspapers about abuse, even though they are dependent【C19】_____the organization they are criticizing and do not dare reveal their real name. Advertisement in personal sections in newspapers are also always signed by a pseudonym for【C20】_____reasons.