Patients Can’t Wait: Growing Coalition of Patients and Families Back Prop 38 to Advance Life-Saving Medical Research

Patients alive today because of successful immunotherapies share their stories, giving California families hope for new treatments and cures

SACRAMENTO, CA, UNITED STATES, September 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- For patients facing cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, Parkinson’s, ALS and other devastating illnesses, time is not a commodity. The proven success of immunotherapies is gaining momentum just as federal funding is retreating. Patients who have benefited from successful immunotherapies are living longer and sharing their stories about the promise of ongoing medical research.


Patients and advocates supporting YES on Proposition 38, the Immunology Medical Research & Cures Initiative, say their experiences underscore why medical research cannot wait until the next patient needs a cure.

“Immunotherapy saved my life. I was just weeks away from losing my life when a breakthrough treatment gave me a second chance,” said Laurie Adami, Cancer Pioneer and Patient Advocate. “Within 30 days of receiving CAR T immunotherapy, the cancer was gone. And if that wasn’t remarkable enough, I’ve remained in complete remission since then, now for more than eight years.”

Laurie’s story illustrates what is at stake as medical research advances: discoveries made years earlier in a laboratory can become the treatment a patient desperately needs today.

Prop 38 will provide $8.4 billion in vitally needed funding to advance breakthrough immunology medical research to help prevent and treat cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and other persistent and debilitating diseases impacting nearly every California family.

“I was 45 when I was diagnosed with lymphoma,” said Andrew Dale, Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Greater Los Angeles chapter of Blood Cancer United. “Chemotherapy stopped working. Immunotherapy is the reason I'm still here, in remission, back on my bike and watching my children grow up. That treatment existed for me because someone funded the research long before I ever needed it. Proposition 38 is how we do that for the next family.”

Immunotherapies harness the body’s immune system to recognize and stop disease and are already saving and extending lives for patients with melanoma, lung cancer, leukemia and lymphoma. Scientists are also studying how immunology could create new treatments for diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS and heart disease.

“Every year we wait is another year of families receiving a diagnosis that changes their family and loved ones’ lives forever,” said Jim McAleer, President and CEO, Alzheimer’s Orange County. “More than 164,000 neighbors in Orange County are living with dementia or mild cognitive impairment. Those families can’t wait for the funding picture in Washington to sort itself out.”

Federal funding cuts and uncertainty are delaying life-saving medical research and threatening progress toward finding cures. We are in a race against time, and patients and their loved ones can’t afford to wait. Every funding cut costs patients time, while every research breakthrough can give families more of it.

“Eight years ago, after I was diagnosed with stage IV kidney cancer, my family and I were counting the time I had left. Then immunotherapy gave me a second chance at life. Today, I am not only surviving, I am thriving,” said Ruben Narvaez, kidney cancer and immunotherapy patient in Los Angeles. “There have been many challenges in the last eight years, but I have been blessed to see three granddaughters born, celebrate my daughter’s quinceañera and make more memories with my family. I don’t know what breakthrough my children or grandchildren may need someday, but I know the research must begin before they need it. Medical research takes time, and that is exactly why we can’t afford to wait. Behind every laboratory, every clinical trial and every discovery is a patient and a family hoping for the same thing my family was given: more time.”

For patients and families facing devastating diseases, every day matters. Continued investment in immunotherapy research can help turn promising discoveries into new treatment options, giving more patients hope, more time with the people they love and, in some cases, the chance to live longer.


Prop 38 represents a new approach to medical research funding, creating a collaborative statewide network that combines competitive research grants with a world-class immunology institute to help turn discoveries into life-saving treatments and cures. Half of the funding will support competitive grants at California universities and nonprofit research institutions, while the other half will support a nonprofit immunology institute affiliated with the University of California.

Prop 38 is designed to pay for itself. Ten percent of all proceeds from the licensing of immunotherapies must be returned to California to offset the measure's total costs, including interest. Additionally, any cure or immunotherapy developed will be provided to California patients at a 20 percent discount. Prop 38 also includes strict accountability requirements, including:
Two percent cap on state administrative expenses
Public disclosure of spending
Independent financial audits
For-profit corporations are not eligible for grant funding

YES on Prop 38 is supported by a broad coalition of patient advocates, doctors, nurses, scientists, researchers and medical organizations working on behalf of Californians affected by HIV/AIDS, cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease and other devastating diseases.

Learn more at YESon38.com, including a full coalition list and what supporters and patients living with these diseases are saying.

Robin Swanson
Swanson Communications
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