phase 1As always love the science.
One interesting tidbit that I can offer from my area of work is the cost differentials for some oncology trials. One trial that I was a lowly assist on had the patients on a daily medication for years and what burned up huge sums was all the follow ups and follow up lab testing. It took two years to be able to say that the medication may have extended survival by 4 months.
With the mouse example TLT posted today, this would be a bit different. If you had a late stage, palliative patient, you would treat once (to start, I guess). Do lots of labwork over a few months (but not years like most oncology trials) and then the key detail to report is the size of the masses on CT scan. If shrinks by a certain amount that is usually considered powerful evidence to move approvals along very quickly. Most tumours don't shrink or go away, they just grow slightly more slowly. This means you cannot easily say that the drug worked or helped unless the trial goes on for a year or two.
So my message is that if humans respond to Rutherrin you could know quickly rather than waiting years. Cheaper and faster progression to phase 2 and 3. I don't see why they would not respond but science is an uncertain process.