Not quite. Phase I trials often happen in patients with the disease, because otherwise the data you get on toxicity aren't that relevant. Definitive efficacy i

Not quite. Phase I trials often happen in patients with the disease, because otherwise the data you get on toxicity aren't that relevant. Definitive efficacy is established in a phase III trial, along with safety. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phases_of_clinical_research This trial is news-worthy for a few reasons. One is that the only documented cases of cure of a disseminated cancer are proabably all due to an immune-mediated attack (exceptions are lymphomas and testicular cancers which can be cured with chemotherapy even if widespread). Vaccines are trying to exploit this mechanism. Another reason is that most of the treatments we use in phase I trials are poorly understood. The treatment employed in this study however utilises a pretty simple and elegant approach - find something that only cancer cells have, then try and bait the immune system with it.