TYLER, Texas — An item on the ballot for Texas' November 5 Constitutional Amendment election will determine the future of the state's cancer-fighting agency.
"CPRIT is such a valuable resource, and it’s a resource that’s unique to Texas," said Carlton Allen, program director of UT Health Science Center at Tyler's colorectal cancer screening program.
Proposition 6 (HJR 12) is the constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to increase by $3 billion the maximum bond amount authorized for the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). Initially, the funding was set to be distributed until 2022.
"I know over the last three years, we've diagnosed upwards of 20 cancers," Allen explained. "So that's 20 individuals that may not have been able to be screened without a grant."
Since its conception, CPRIT has served as the second largest source of public funding for cancer research and prevention statewide.
In the last five years, the colorectal program at the UT Health Science Center has received three grants from the agency. The most recent grant was awarded in August for the amount of $1.9 million.
"Our project focuses on those individuals who are uninsured or under insured, but really it affects everybody," Allen explained. "We're able to give screenings to people who may not be able to afford it or they're co pay or deductible is just too high."
The fate of future CPRIT grants is now in the hands of Texas voters. The proposed amendment would increase the maximum bond amount from $3 billion to $6 billion, keeping the organization's grants flowing for an estimated additional 10 years.
"We have a program that serves 32 counties in East Texas, and we've done over 1,600 educational activities with individuals, and we've had 6,300 cancer prevention screenings here for individuals," Allen said.
In the past 10 years, CPRIT has handed out $2.3 billion in cancer-fighting grants to Texas physicians and researchers. Additionally, it has funded 4.7 million cancer-prevention services, 1.18 million screenings and 108 clinical studies.
CPRIT has also created thousands of jobs and brought in more than 170 researchers, including a Nobel Prize winner, to Texas.
"Without CPRIT, there would be less cancer funding, less cancer research, less diagnoses from projects like ours so that individuals that may not have been screened would not be able to be screened if CPRIT were to go away," Allen said.
It is a possibility many medical professionals are fighting to prevent.
However, opponents of the amendment argue increasing the bond amount is not an urgent matter since funds are expected to last at least through 2021. Instead, some lawmakers are encouraging a plan to make CPRIT more financially self-sufficient.