“…The ADVANCE trial began to recruit nearly 20 years ago 1 and it is apposite to review the trial results in the light of the history and progress made in therapeutics in the treatment of type 2 diabetes since the main results were published in 2008. 2 In this series of articles in this supplement, Zoungas, Knudsen & Cooper, Chalmers & Woodward, and Marre outline the history and the findings on the ADVANCE trial in some detail, covering explicitly the lessons learned about glycaemic control, 3 renal disease, 4 observational studies, 5 and blood pressure (BP) control. 6 Long-term outcome trials are expensive and labour-intensive.…”