Documentaries
First in Human (Discovery, Sky 070, Sunday, 7.30pm) shines a light on a crucial aspect of medical science: clinical trials of new medicines. The series has gained access to Building 10 at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, which has been doing trials since the 1950s.
Building 10 is the site of the first trials of modern chemotherapy, treatments for HIV/Aids and gene therapy. However, fewer patients are enrolling in clinical trials, even as new and innovative treatments are coming on stream. Doctors here treat patients who have exhausted
all options and the series follows four cancer sufferers who are taking part in immunotherapy trials.
Two of the subjects are Bo Cooper, whose leukaemia has returned, and Anita McAllister, who has metastatic melanoma. Cooper’s trial involves removing T cells from his blood and engineering them to recognise and attack his cancer. McAllister, on the other hand,
is having tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) therapy, in which cells are extracted from her tumours, grown in a lab, then returned to her body to (in theory) attack her cancer.
It is hoped the series will encourage more people to volunteer for the trials. The
Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons, who narrates, says there is a misconception that patients are volunteering to be lab rats, but it “is a 180 [turn] from that”.