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IIRC former NCI head, Vince de Vita, mentions that early oncology research was pretty much right-to-try by default because they had no data on anything. And it made some people live longer because they could change strategy after the first one failed. Nowadays you have a standard care and if it fails the system will almost drop you out..

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My grand father was a hematologist and he definitely just tried pet theories on terminal patients

Isn't this both unethical and illegal?

Maybe now, but it hasn't always been so. Attitudes change. If you're lucky enough to chat with someone in their 90s about dying, you may hear stories of how doctors used to "help people on their way". In other words, casual euthanasia was quietly accepted and expected.

Not quite what GP is describing, but it illustrates the point.

My mother, long since passed, was a registered nurse (and also carrying far more empathy than most human). She explained morphine pushes and “slow codes” (taking your time so people who wanted to die could) to me in my teens (early to mid 90s). Good terms of art to know when end of life creeps up on you.

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