Randomized Trials Meet Real Life

When researchers compared the relative effectiveness of initial HIV treatment regimens in the clinic to the relative efficacy of those same regimens in clinical trials, the results were remarkably similar.

Randomized trials of various antiretroviral regimens provide the scientific basis for all evidence-based HIV treatment guidelines. How well, though, do the results of these trials translate into real-life settings?

To answer this question, researchers examined data from 12,000 patients in a collaborative observational cohort study (ART-CC) who started antiretroviral therapy (ART) with the same regimens that were evaluated among 1250 patients in ACTG 5095 and ACTG 5142. They determined the relative effectiveness of the regimens in the cohort (for example, comparing AZT/3TC + efavirenz to AZT/3TC + abacavir, as was done in ACTG 5095) and then compared their findings to the relative efficacy reported in the trials. Outcomes of interest included…

Reviewing Authors

Wajid Siddiqui, MD

Helmut Albrecht, MD

Disclosures

Grant / Research supportHealth Resources and Services Administration; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Leadership positions in professional societiesColumbia Medical Society; South Carolina Infectious Diseases Society

Helmut Albrecht, MD

Disclosures

Grant / Research supportHealth Resources and Services Administration; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Leadership positions in professional societiesColumbia Medical Society; South Carolina Infectious Diseases Society

Randomized Trials Meet Real Life

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Reviewing Authors