Phase I Clinical Trial — First-in-Human Dose-Escalation Study

A Phase I clinical trial is the first stage of human testing for a new drug, biologic, or intervention. Its primary objective is to evaluate safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics (PK), and pharmacodynamics (PD) rather than therapeutic efficacy. Small cohorts of participants — typically healthy volunteers or patients with advanced disease — receive sequentially increasing doses to identify the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and the dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) that define the boundary for subsequent trials.