- The Framingham Heart Study – one of the most famous clinical studies in history – helped to change the belief that people who developed diseases of the heart and blood vessels were just unlucky. The study, which began in 1948 and is still running, showed that there are clear risk factors for these conditions and things that people can do to lower their risk. Framingham Heart Study.1
- During the 1990s and early 2000s, a series of major international clinical trials proved that cholesterol-lowering medicines called statins can lower the risk of dying from heart attacks and strokes. Landmark Lipid-Lowering Trials in the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease.2
- In the cancer field, a landmark clinical trial called IRIS, completed in 2002, showed that a new medicine called Gleevec could stop a deadly type of leukaemia. Before Gleevec, people diagnosed with this condition were lucky to live for another five years. This discovery also marked a turning point in the way scientists develop medicines for cancer. Iris at Five Years – Still Changing the Face of Long-term Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Therapy.3
- And in type 2 diabetes, the long-term UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) – which began in the 1970s and involved over 5000 participants – helped to prove the importance of careful management of blood glucose and blood pressure in preventing or delaying diabetes-related complications. Studies that changed clinical practice. UKPDS: United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study.4