The findings from the clinical trial are noteworthy because the drug was tested in a small number of patients with advanced disease, said study clinical director Dr. Arkadiusz Dudek, an oncologist with the HealthPartners Cancer Center at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota, and at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.Phase I clinical trials track side effects in patients who first are given very low doses of the compound being tested.This process can take several months before a potentially therapeutic dose is given, said Dr. Oana Danciu, a medical oncologist and associate director for clinical research at the University of Illinois Cancer Center in Chicago, who led the clinical trial."Our strategy is to figure out which tumor type will be the most sensitive and pursue that," Dudek said.An approved drug also can be prescribed for "off-label use" by doctors who think their patients might benefit from adding it to their cancer-treatment protocols."