In this era of personalised medicine, are big clinical trials relevant?

The debate is surging days before the results of a large clinical trial are to be unveiled this week

Sweeping clinical trials in which thousands of patients are studied for years at a stretch have long been the Holy Grail of medical research — especially when funded by the federal government.
 
But in the era of personalised medicine, where care can be tailored to a person’s genetic make-up and doctors analyse a patient’s DNA to figure out treatments, big trials are falling out of favour.
 
Instead, many researchers are arguing for smaller, nimbler trials that involve fewer patients and take less time. This has pitted those who believe small trials make more sense against those who worry