Where to find information on clinical trials

Databases and listings

Current Controlled Trials

• www.controlled-trials.com

Database of trials in all areas of health care. This database is aimed at researchers, but is freely accessible. Summarises purpose, start date, end date, status (ongoing, closed etc), inclusion and exclusion criteria, contact information, links to patient information and project websites.

Databases that can be searched include:

• UK Clinical Trials Gateway
• US National Institutes of Health (www.Clinicaltrials.gov)
• NHS Research and Development Health Technology Assessment Programme
• Medical Research Council

Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit

• www.ctu.mrc.ac.uk

The Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) designs and co-ordinates many UK and some international clinical trials. Lisiting includes planned, ongoing and concluded studies:

• HIV trials at the MRC
• Childrens' trials
• Adults' trials
• Trials open for enrollment - adults and children

Research cohorts and networks

PENTA network

• www.pentatrials.org

PENTA (Paediatric European Network for Treatment of AIDS) is a collaboration between paediatric HIV centres in Europe. PENTA is concerned with the treatment and care of children with HIV in Europe and professional training as well as research.

UK Register of HIV Seroconverters

• www.ctu.mrc.ac.uk/studies/RegSero.asp

Observational cohort of around 2000 people with HIV who have a known or well-estimated date of seroconversion. The study recruits and follows up from over 100 clinical centres in the UK.

CHIPS: Collaborative HIV Paediatric Study in the UK and Ireland

• www.chipscohort.ac.uk

A multi-centre cohort study collecting retrospective and prospective data on children with HIV-1 in the UK and Ireland.

CASCADE: Concerted Action on Seroconversion to AIDS and Death in Europe

• www.ctu.mrc.ac.uk/cascade

Collaboration between the investigators of 23 cohorts of persons with well-estimated dates of HIV seroconversion.Follow-up is life-long. The main aim is to address issues which cannot be reliably tackled is one-off studies by pooling data. The current dataset (pooled in June-September 2006) includes data on 17, 240 seroconverters.

UK CHIC: UK Collaborative HIV Cohort

• www.ctu.mrc.ac.uk/studies/chic.asp

Collaboration of the largest HIV clinics in the UK initiated in 2001. The study objectives are to: monitor and describe changes over time in the frequency of AIDS-defining illnesses and survival, describe the uptake of and response to HAART and identify factors associated with virological and immunological response to HAART.

Individual studies

SPARTAC

• www.ctu.mrc.ac.uk/studies/spartac.asp

An international randomised-controlled trial comparing 3 different interventions for people who have recently acquired HIV (referred to as Primary HIV Infection or PHI). The main objective is to determine whether being treated at primary HIV infection for a limited duration delays damage to the immune system and consequently prolongs time to initiation of long-term anti-retroviral therapy.

Updated: 12 August 2008