Intensive glucose-lowering in older patients with advanced type 2 diabetes is unlikely to confer lasting cardiovascular benefits or reduce mortality risk compared with standard treatment, a major US trial has shown.

Reporting on a 15-year follow-up of patients in the Veterans’ Affairs Diabetes trial (VADT), researchers said more than five years of intensive therapy did not reduce events, such as MI, stroke or cardiovascular-related death, in the long term.