ICYMI: Blood Cancer United’s Chief Medical Officer Urges Californians to Vote YES on Proposition 38

Dr. Gwen L. Nichols states immunotherapies are already saving lives and notes Prop 38 offers a smart response to federal cuts targeting medical research

SACRAMENTO, CA, UNITED STATES, October 16, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- In a guest opinion picked up by The Mercury News and East Bay Times, Dr. Gwen L. Nichols, Chief Medical Officer for Blood Cancer United (formerly The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society), shares that federal cuts are hurting critical medical research focused on immunotherapies that have been proven to extend lives and treat certain cancers and aggressive diseases inflicting millions every year.

In her piece, “California has a chance to change the odds for cancer,” Dr. Nichols shared the success of immunotherapies on certain cancers but warned that the “progress is fragile. These breakthroughs took years of strained research funding and partnerships among government, academia and industry - no single entity can go it alone.”

Proposition 38, the Immunology Medical Research & Cures Initiative, will provide $8.4 billion to accelerate immunology research to help cure and prevent cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease, and other persistent diseases. Immunotherapies harness the body's own immune system to prevent and treat diseases, and they are already successfully treating patients with melanoma, lung cancer, leukemia and lymphoma. Prop 38 will fund the next generation of this research for other devastating diseases, like Parkinson’s, diabetes, ALS, muscular dystrophy, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and multiple sclerosis.

“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 more stable work. 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,” Nichols added.

The timing is urgent. Uncertainty and cuts to federal research funding are shutting down clinical trials and delaying discoveries at the exact moment immunology science has momentum. At least 160 active clinical trials nationwide have been affected by the termination of National Institutes of Health grants in 2025. In California, universities began curtailing biomedical research and delaying hiring as federal grants were terminated or withheld.

Prop 38 is designed to pay for itself. Ten percent of all proceeds from the licensing of immunotherapies developed under Prop 38 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 below the national average. 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

Blood Cancer United is a part of a broad and diverse coalition of 70+ patient advocacy, nursing and scientific groups supporting YES on Prop 38. Learn more at YESon38.com, including a coalition list and what supporters are saying.

Robin Swanson
YES on Prop 38
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