Today marks International Clinical Trials Day, a global initiative intended to highlight the advances being made in clinical research projects across the world.
This is the 279th anniversary of James Lind’s study aboard HMS Salisbury, which began on 20 May 1747 and resulted in the use of citrus fruits as a treatment for scurvy, something considered by many to be the first randomised clinical trial.
To mark the occasion, the CTC takes this opportunity to look at some recent highlights from its research work.
Thyroid cancer
Results from the ION study, published in The Lancet in July 2025, found that a form of radiation treatment given after thyroid cancer surgery is not needed for most low-risk patients. The treatment normally involves a stay in hospital isolation of one to three days, followed by restrictions on close contact with children. Work is under way to update clinical guidelines accordingly, with estimates that
400,000 patients worldwide could benefit from this reduced time spent in hospital.
CAR T cell therapy
The MIGHTY trial – the UK arm of the international NexTGen project, funded by Cancer Research UK – became the first of three related trials to receive regulatory approval, open to recruitment, and treat a patient. The trial is testing a form of immunotherapy called CAR T cell therapy, where a patient's own immune cells are modified in a laboratory to target cancer, before being returned to the body as ‘living medicine’. The treatment is adjusted as the trial progresses, based on data from patients already treated.
Prostate cancer
The ENHANCE trial was launched in March, with support from Cancer Research UK and Prostate Cancer UK. The trial will investigate whether men with advanced prostate cancer can take a lower dose of a hormone therapy drug and still have the same chance of survival, while experiencing fewer side effects.
Womb cancer
Ten-year follow-up data from the PORTEC-3 trial, published in The Lancet Oncology in September 2025, showed that patients with high-risk womb cancer who received a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy lived longer and were less likely to see their cancer return than those who received radiotherapy alone. The benefit was most pronounced in patients whose tumours had a specific genetic characteristic.
Elsewhere, follow-up results from the NEOPRISM bowel cancer trial, presented at a major international cancer conference in 2026, recorded
no relapses among participants. The ARISTOTLE bowel cancer trial has been accepted for publication in The Lancet Oncology; data from the trial is being used to develop computer models that can predict which patients are likely to experience side effects from treatment. The CTC's ABC programme, focused on cancers of the bile ducts and gallbladder, has published new analyses from earlier trials and launched a new study testing whether patients can be matched to treatments based on the genetic profile of their cancer.