Sunday, March 11, 2007

It's an ambitious goal: finding a cancer cure. It's a lot of money,
amounting to a $3 billion investment. Leading lawmakers filed legislation
Wednesday that would invest up to $300 million a year to fund a wide range
of cancer research initiatives in Texas. Gov. Rick Perry, joined by a
bipartisan group of lawmakers, called the proposal a "landmark investment in
a collaborative research effort that can put Texas on the leading edge of
developing new therapies for cancer treatment."
The plan would have to go before Texas voters in November to determine
whether the state could borrow against bonds to fund the Cancer Research
Institute of Texas. In his budget proposal, Perry had proposed using
proceeds from selling the state lottery to a private company, but
legislators have appeared cool to that funding idea. The American Cancer
Society, the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation and the Lance Armstrong
Foundation would participate in collaboration with private companies, state
universities, medical schools and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson
Cancer Center.