April 23, 2004

Jury Clears Cancer Center of Failing to Tell Participants of Clinical-Trial Risks

By GOLDIE BLUMENSTYK and JEFFREY BRAINARD

Jurors in Seattle this month cleared the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and three of its doctors of inadequately informing four participants in a clinical trial of the dangers.

One of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, Alan C. Milstein, is bringing several similar cases against other academic medical centers.

Families of participants who died had sued, contending that the center and the doctors, who also hold faculty appointments at the University of Washington, had failed