For 10 months, the Plain Dealer followed 9 cancer patients through their journey as study participants in Phase 1 trials at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland. These studies are the first step in determining if drugs and other therapies are safe in humans. We accompanied these patients as they learned about the treatments they had agreed to undergo – and the role in which they may play in the development of new drug therapies down the road. We also explored the issues of funding for clinical trials, the challenge of increasing participation among minority patients. And we lifted the veil on the long road from an idea to laboratory testing, from clinical trials to FDA approval.
