First, do no harm

Current chemoprevention strategies may do more harm than good.

I REMEMBER the bragging rights that came with medical school. One was the ability to spout a few Latin phrases. Primum non nocere was one of the first things taught to us. It simply means, “First, do no harm”. Each time a doctor writes out a prescription or operates on a patient, he must be scrupulously clear in his mind that he is doing more good than harm.