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0:00
Hello. I'm professor
Allan Hackshaw
and I'm from University
College London, UK.
It's my pleasure to take
you through a series
of short sessions
about clinical trials.
This first session is why
we do clinical trials.
0:19
In this session, I'm going to
cover the importance
of clinical trials,
why they are done,
and who funds them,
and how they're used
for decision-making.
0:30
A clinical trial is a type of
experimental study using people.
We call them
experimental because
people do something they
normally would not do,
and that could involve taking
something whether it's a drug,
some kind of other substance,
or changing some lifestyle or
behavioral characteristic.
They've revolutionized how we
live our lives and how
we get treated if we
fall ill. Modern trials
even though they're
quite sophisticated now,
some of the main
concepts really start
in 1940s and 1950s,
and some of the key components
are still here today.
With a better understanding
of how diseases
develop and advances
in technologies,
we can create new
interventions for
a whole new generation of
clinical trials today.
1:17
Here are some examples of
well known interventions that we
all take for granted
in everyday life.
Aspirin, for example,
started off a couple
of hundred years ago,
and that started off in
a very small clinical trial
in which three patients with
acute rheumatism
all did incredibly
well after being given
a precursor to aspirin.
Breast cancer is one of
the commonest cancers
and most cancers were
incurable many years ago.
Early stage breast
cancer used to
have surgery as its
fundamental first step.
However, the surgery was
extensive and was damaging
to surrounding tissue.
Clinical trials
show that removing
only a part of the
breast where the cancer
was found was just as
effective with major
benefits to patients.
Last example, millions
of people smoke
worldwide and quitting is
known to be difficult.
Clinical trials show
that given nicotine,
whether it's gum or patches
greatly improves the
chance of stopping.
These three are just
a small handful
of things that we do
in everyday life,
how we are treated
that have come about
through large-scale
randomized clinical trials.
