MRC CTU at the 2010 British Science Festival

20 Jun 2014

CTU is running an event on clinical trials for the general public at the upcoming British Science Festival. The truth about clinical trials will look at clinical trials from various perspectives, including leading international researchers and trial participants. It will take place from 5-7pm on the 17 September at the Electric Cinema in Birmingham. The evening is organised in collaboration with the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Birmingham.

Factors to be considered in making a clinical trial a fair and unbiased test, and how they are dealt with, will be demonstrated by Dave Ardron (Chair of the National Cancer Research Institute Consumer Liaison Group), Nicola Muirhead (Trial Manager at CTU) and Professor Mahesh Parmar (Director of CTU). Mahesh will give an introduction to the evening ahead, before Dave explains how clinical trials work and why they are so important.

Dr Ashley Martin from the University of Birmingham & Cancer Research UK will describe how discoveries arising from laboratory, clinical, or population studies are turned into new ways of preventing and treating disease, in a branch of science known as translational research.

Professor Philip Johnson, Director of the Cancer Research Clinical Trials Unit, will talk about some of the clinical trials he has worked on and how this research will benefit people affected by cancer. Richard Stephens of the NCRI Consumer Liaison Group will then give an account of being a participant in 3 different clinical trials - a stage 3 chemotherapy trial for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a stage 2 study involving experimental medicine and a multi-national survey following an emergency heart procedure. He will discuss how his views on trials have changed through his experiences.

CTU’s Diana Gibb was investigator on the ground-breaking DART trial. This flagship trial showed how many more people with HIV in rural areas of Africa could be treated by adapting treatment strategies and using lab tests in a targeted, rather than routine, way. With highlights of a documentary made about the trial, Professor Gibb will show how science benefits all those who play a part in its discoveries. This will be followed by a panel discussion during which the audience may direct questions to any of the speakers.

Please call 020 7019 4947 or visit the British Science Association website to book tickets.