Famous Clinical Trials in History
Trial↕ | Lead Investigator↕ | Year↕ | Disease↕ | Participants↕ | Outcome↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Salk Polio Vaccine Trial | Jonas Salk, Thomas Francis | 1954 | Polio | 1,800,000 | Largest field trial in history; vaccine 80-90% effective; near eradication of polio |
MRC Streptomycin Trial | Austin Bradford Hill | 1948 | Tuberculosis | 107 | First randomized controlled trial; established RCT as gold standard |
RECOVERY Trial | Peter Horby, Martin Landray | 2020 | COVID-19 | 47,000 | Showed dexamethasone cuts deaths in ventilated patients by one-third |
Framingham Heart Study | Thomas Royle Dawber | 1948 | Cardiovascular Disease | 5,209 | Identified cholesterol, blood pressure and smoking as CV risk factors; ongoing |
Women's Health Initiative | Bernadine Healy, NIH | 1991 | Cancer, Heart Disease, Osteoporosis | 161,808 | Showed hormone replacement therapy increases breast cancer and stroke risk |
ISIS-2 Trial | Rory Collins et al. | 1988 | Acute Myocardial Infarction | 17,187 | Aspirin and streptokinase each cut mortality; combined cut deaths by 42% |
4S (Simvastatin Study) | Scandinavian group | 1994 | Coronary Heart Disease | 4,444 | First trial to show statins reduce mortality in high-risk patients |
GISSI-1 | Italian GISSI Group | 1986 | Myocardial Infarction | 11,806 | Thrombolysis with streptokinase cut hospital mortality significantly |
UKPDS (Diabetes) | Robert Turner, Oxford | 1977 | Type 2 Diabetes | 5,102 | Intensive glucose control reduces microvascular complications; 20-year follow-up |
Physicians' Health Study | Charles Hennekens | 1982 | Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer | 22,071 | Aspirin cut first MI risk by 44%; reshaped primary prevention |
HOPE Trial | Salim Yusuf | 2000 | Cardiovascular Disease | 9,297 | Ramipril reduced CV events in patients without heart failure |
BCG Tuberculosis Trial (India) | Indian Council of Medical Research | 1968 | Tuberculosis | 366,625 | Showed BCG vaccine had little protective effect in South India |
AZT for HIV (ACTG 076) | Edward Connor et al. | 1994 | HIV | 477 | AZT cut mother-to-child HIV transmission by 67% |
Pfizer-BioNTech COVID Vaccine Trial | Kathrin Jansen, Ugur Sahin | 2020 | COVID-19 | 43,548 | 95% efficacy; first mRNA vaccine authorized for human use |
MRFIT Trial | National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute | 1973 | Coronary Heart Disease | 12,866 | Multifactor risk intervention showed modest benefit; reshaped CV prevention |
CAPRIE Trial | Mark Gent | 1996 | Atherothrombosis | 19,185 | Clopidogrel modestly better than aspirin in preventing vascular events |
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