Clinical trials, also called research studies, test new treatments in people with cancer.
But there were also stark contrasts between how the two men endured the trials called by their peers.
Despite warning against the drug's outpatient use, the committee said that a clinical trial called Fusion 2 should be allowed to continue.
The trial, called Illuminate, was scheduled to be completed in 2009.
There was an earlier trial called Edwards v. Aguillard.
They point out that in the last decade, four people originally sentenced to death were later acquitted in new trials called because of new evidence.
Phase IV clinical trials, also called post-marketing studies, are conducted after a treatment has been approved.
The clinical trial at issue, called Approve, studied 2,600 people, half of whom took Vioxx and half a placebo for three years.
In an underwater trial called What Lurks Beneath, he again surrendered after only collecting one star.
Microsoft said a companywide trial of the service, called Windows OneCare, would begin next week.