Clinical trial results usually tell us how effective a treatment was on average for the overall group of participants, but a key question for clinicians, patients and policy makers is: which individual patients benefit most from the treatment and which don’t benefit as much? In the latest episode of the Trial Talk podcast, Peter Godolphin and David Fisher discuss a new method for determining how treatment effects differ between subgroups of patients across multiple clinical trials, as well as how other meta-analysis researchers can use it. Resources: • Estimating interactions and subgroup-spec ..read more

UKCTOCS (UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening) is one of the largest screening trials in ovarian cancer. More than 200,000 women from England, Wales and Northern Ireland took part in it, and it ran for almost two decades. Designing and running such a large and lengthy trial came with its own challenges. In this episode, Professor Usha Menon discusses the key challenges that UKCTOCS faced in its design, conduct an analysis, and how the team addressed them. Further information is available on the UKCTOCS website at ukctocs.mrcctu.ucl.ac.uk Listen to the episode about the UKCTOCS tr ..read more

In the first episode of our new Trial Talk series, Hanif Esmail and Conor Tweed take over the microphones to interview Andrew Nunn and Sarah Meredith, who have both recently retired from the Unit, having spent a combined total of 92 years working in the field of tuberculosis (TB). As we celebrate Andrew and Sarah’s long and accomplished careers, we’ll dive into the history of TB clinical trials and muse on the future of TB research. For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.mrcctu.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-stories/2024/january/new-podcast-episode-careers-in-tb-clinical-trials Ch ..read more

Every year on 1st December, we mark World AIDS Day to show solidarity in the fight against HIV and AIDS, and to remember those who have sadly lost their lives. Since the start of the global AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, researchers have made enormous progress towards preventing HIV transmission, and treating those who are living with HIV so that the virus remains suppressed. But while there have been marked improvements for adults, treatment coverage in children and adolescents is lagging behind. In the first of our World AIDS Day episodes, Dr Anna Turkova, Clinical Principal Research Fellow at ..read more

Octopus is a new clinical trial for people living with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), which is designed and run by the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL. Thanks to its multi-arm multi-stage platform design, Octopus has the potential to transform the way treatments for progressive MS are tested. The trial is now open in the UK and will be recruiting participants for the next few years. The podcast mini-series will explore the trial from different perspectives by talking to neurologists, MS experts and people affected by MS. In Part 3, MS experts Dawn Lyle and Matthew Justin walk us through ..read more

Octopus is a new clinical trial for people living with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), which is designed and run by the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL.Thanks to its multi-arm multi-stage platform design, Octopus has the potential to transform the way treatments for progressive MS are tested. The trial is now open in the UK and will be recruiting participants for the next few years. The podcast mini-series will explore the trial from different perspectives by talking to neurologists, MS experts and people affected by MS. Part 1 covers the treatment and research landscape of MS and the cha ..read more

Innovative platform designs present an opportunity to run faster and more efficient clinical trials. Clinical trials methodology is a research area that looks at how to improve the design, conduct, and analysis of clinical trials. It focuses on developing and implementing new methods to help run trials faster and more efficiently, that will ultimately accelerate the discovery of new treatments. In this episode, methodologist Matteo Quartagno tells us about a new clinical trial design called MAMS-ROCI. It is a type of multi-arm multi-stage design that compares a range of different treatment dur ..read more

STAMPEDE is a long-running trial in advanced prostate cancer, in which nearly 12,000 men have taken part. Thanks to its multi-arm multi-stage platform design, STAMPEDE has tested many different treatments and directly led to improvements in the standard of prostate cancer care several times. This Trial Talk podcast mini-series will explore the trial’s journey from its inception in the early 2000s to the end of patient recruitment in March 2023. In the final part, Max Parmar and Nick James look back over the trial’s impact on clinical practice and platform trial design, and look forward to STAM ..read more

STAMPEDE is a long-running trial in advanced prostate cancer, in which nearly 12,000 men have taken part. Thanks to its multi-arm multi-stage platform design, STAMPEDE has tested many different treatments and directly led to improvements in the standard of prostate cancer care several times. This Trial Talk podcast mini-series will explore the trial’s journey from its inception in the early 2000s to the end of patient recruitment in March 2023. Part 2 is about patient and public involvement (PPI) in the trial. David Matheson, a Reader at the University of Wolverhampton and STAMPEDE patient rep ..read more

STAMPEDE is a long-running trial in advanced prostate cancer, in which nearly 12,000 men have taken part. Thanks to its multi-arm multi-stage platform design, STAMPEDE has tested many different treatments and directly led to improvements in the standard of prostate cancer care several times. This Trial Talk podcast mini-series will explore the trial’s journey from its inception in the early 2000s to the end of patient recruitment in March 2023. Part 1 covers the landscape of prostate cancer treatment before STAMPEDE, as well how the trial was designed, featuring two researchers who lead the me ..read more