VOA标准英语2010年-Study Questions Results of Clinical Tr

From time to time, researchers stop clinical trials because the results seem almost too good to be true. A new international study shows that is probably because those results are not true.

When researchers end a clinical trial early because the results are better than expected, it allows a drug to get on the market and patients to receive it sooner than if the trial were carried out as planned.

It sounds like a good thing, but it may not be.

A new international analysis of 100 clinical trials that ended early found that the results were often wrong and sometimes life-threatening.

Dr. Victor Montori of the Mayo Clinic is one of the authors of the report. "What is happening is they are catching¹ the data at a random² high. The data is accumulating and it looks like a big effect, but if you let it go a little bit, that effect may become smaller over time," he explained.

Or, the benefit of the treatment may not even exist.

"Not only were the studies misleading, in terms of how big the treatment effect was really, but also whether a treatment effect existed at all," Dr. Montori said.

The clinical trials that Dr. Montori and his colleagues reviewed ended early because the results of an experimental treatment were much better than those of an existing therapy.

An example is a study on beta-blockers, drugs often prescribed for high blood pressure. Beta blockers slow the heart rate and can prevent heart attack during surgery. An initial trial was stopped early because these drugs looked to be highly effective if given prior to surgery. The drugs seemed to improve survival rates. But a larger trial showed that some patients given the drugs had significantly higher death rates.

Dr. Montori and other researchers compared the 100 trials that were called off early with more than 400 comparable trials that went through to completion. They found that the results were especially misleading in the smaller trials that ended early.

"What the investigators³ are caught on is when they look at the data at a given time before the study was supposed to finish, and they find a large treatment effect, then they get mislead by that treatment effect, and then in fact, if they decide to stop at that point, they end up misleading everyone else when they publish the results," he said.

Dr. Montori says the false findings discourage other researchers from repeating the study to see if they get the same positive results.

The authors of the study say researchers need to resist pressures to end clinical trials early. They say this will prevent patients and physicians from making treatment choices based on inaccurate⁴ information, or even worse, choosing one treatment when another would be far better.
 

1 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

2 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

3 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 inaccurate   

adj.错误的，不正确的，不准确的

参考例句：

• The book is both inaccurate and exaggerated.这本书不但不准确，而且夸大其词。
• She never knows the right time because her watch is inaccurate.她从来不知道准确的时间因为她的表不准。