‘By requiring researchers to collaborate and share what they learn, Prop. 38 would build a statewide research network focused on one urgent goal: more lifesaving treatments, sooner.’
As a physician, I have all too often been witness to the worst day of a patient’s life: the day they hear the words “you have cancer.” For decades, that diagnosis was too often a death sentence. But because of groundbreaking advancements in cancer research, patients are now hearing something life-changing from their doctors: more treatment options, more hope and, in some cases, even a cure.
Some of these treatments harness the body’s immune system to find and attack cancer cells. These types of treatments—called immunotherapies—continue to transform how we treat cancers.
That’s why Blood Cancer United strongly supports Yes on Proposition 38 on California’s November ballot: to accelerate life-saving immunotherapy research to find more cures and more treatments for the diseases that devastate millions of Californians every year.
Immunotherapies are already curing and extending lives. Diseases that used to be fatal within months have become survivable diseases. Blood Cancer United is the largest private funder of blood cancer research, and our researchers and patients tell us how their lives have changed as a result. This progress isn’t someday. It’s happening right now, and it’s one of the great medical achievements in recent decades.
And yet, the path to this progress is fragile. These breakthroughs took years of sustained research funding and partnerships among government, academia and industry – no single entity can go it alone.
But because of federal cuts, that research is growing less certain by the day. Labs are shutting down mid-study. Young scientists are leaving the field for something more stable. Patients in the middle of a clinical trial are threatened with the prospect of having their treatments taken away. These promising immunotherapies aren’t being held back by science, but rather by a lack of funding.
Prop. 38 would give California the chance to lead the next wave of cancer breakthroughs. By investing in immunotherapy research at leading nonprofit universities and research centers, it would help move promising discoveries from the lab to patients faster. And by requiring researchers to collaborate and share what they learn, Prop. 38 would build a statewide research network focused on one urgent goal: more lifesaving treatments, sooner.
This means new investments will continue in treatments such as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, commonly known as CAR-T. It continues to revolutionize treatment for cancer.
By reprogramming a patient’s own blood, their T-Cells find and destroy cancer cells. It is often used after other treatments have failed for patients because of its complexities. And it saved Laurie Adami, a blood cancer patient in Los Angeles, after several rounds of chemotherapy and other treatments did not get the lasting results she needed. Not only did CAR-T treatment save her life, but ongoing research has also led to several other FDA-approved CAR-T therapies for cancer.
Prop. 38 will save lives.
And California is uniquely positioned to seize this moment, with some of the country’s most respected and prestigious research institutions and National Cancer Institutes. Collaboration among potential grantees across institutions on discoveries, expertise and best practices can keep the state a leader in innovation and access to treatments for patients.
Prop. 38 is designed to create something California has never had before: a permanent, collaborative research ecosystem that combines broad competitive funding with a world-class institution capable of accelerating discoveries into lifesaving treatments for patients.
The science is ready. The only question is whether we fund it.
Blood Cancer United stands with every patient and family who has been told to hold on just a little longer for a breakthrough. Patients don’t get to pause their disease while funding cycles run their course, and we can’t afford to pause progress. Prop. 38 is how we get there faster, with more treatments, more cures and more hope.
On behalf of the patients and families we serve, I urge California voters to vote “yes” on Prop. 38.