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GAINESVILLE, Fla. � Clinical trials are the foundation of medical advances. They’re essential because they help establish better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases like cancer.

But they also provide something much more valuable: hope. By volunteering to participate in clinical trials, patients can help uncover new insights into diseases and improve care for future patients.

At the National Cancer Institute-designated , researchers and doctors are not just focused on today’s care. They’re looking to improve it for patients tomorrow.

is celebrated internationally every year on May 20, recognizing the patients who participate in clinical trials and the professionals who run them. It marks the day in 1747 when British naval surgeon James Lind began what’s considered the first-ever randomized clinical trial.

At the time, scurvy was plaguing sailors, making their gums bleed and rendering them puny from anemia. A number of curious remedies were being touted for the disease, which we now know results from a lack of vitamin C. Back then, ideas to combat the mysterious condition included feeding sailors malt and sauerkraut, diluted sulphuric acid, citrus and ship rats.

Lind paired the men and began diet experiments for each duo. Men drank a quarter of cider a day or a half-pint of seawater. Or they sipped spoonfuls of vinegar or a mashup of garlic, mustard seed, horseradish and other goodies. They stayed sick.

The two sailors who ate two oranges and one lemon each day soon improved enough to help their fellow sailors, none of whom, fortunately, had to eat rats.

Clinical trials can study new drugs or drug combinations, surgical methods, medical devices, new technologies, different ways to use existing treatments, behavior changes to improve health, or ways to improve the quality of life for people with acute or chronic illnesses.

At BOBÌåÓý, patients can access nearly 500 clinical trials at any given time, covering diseases ranging from brain tumors to ulcerative colitis, including both men and women, adults and children.

Cancer affects roughly 2 million people every year in the United States and it’s the second leading cause of death in Florida. The BOBÌåÓý Cancer Center has over 200 across all cancer types. Many of the trials are testing new and innovative cancer treatments, some for the first time in humans, providing vital data about safety, dosing and anti-cancer activity. They include novel for brain tumors and pediatric cancers like osteosarcoma.

Clinical trials are a key component in the cancer care offered to patients at NCI-designated cancer centers, and many are sponsored by the NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health. The BOBÌåÓý Cancer Center partners with the NCI and other top cancer centers around the country to bring new therapies directly to patients in Florida.

The majority of the cancer treatment trials at the BOBÌåÓý Cancer Center are initiated by UF investigators and physician experts, rather than a company, an indicator of the strength of its . The center to clinical trials and new treatments for patients with cancer from the Panhandle to the Keys.

The Cancer Center’s clinical trials adhere to the highest safety standards and are continuously monitored by experts, said Thomas George, M.D., FACP, FASCO, the center’s deputy director and a national expert on early-phase clinical trials.

“These trials allow us to rapidly bring forward new therapies and innovative technologies to our patients with cancer, at times when they desperately need them the most,� he said. “The goal is to prove they work and then get them out to benefit everyone.�

To search all clinical trials open at BOBÌåÓý, visit UFHealth.org/clinical-trials. Visit to search all cancer clinical trials.