Cancer Survivor Laurie Adami: 'I’m Alive Today Because of Life-Saving Medical Research'

In an op-ed and interviews, the CAR T-cell therapy patient and Blood Cancer United Greater Los Angeles board member shares why she is voting YES on Prop 38

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, October 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- In a guest opinion piece, Laurie Adami shares her story of how immunotherapy saved her life and why she’s asking Californians to vote YES on Proposition 38, the Immunology Medical Research & Cures Initiative.

In 2006, Laurie Adami was running a successful software company in Los Angeles when her oncologist told her she had stage IV follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Her son was six years old. Her first thought wasn't about her career.

"I thought about my son: my six-year-old little boy, only in kindergarten. I needed to be there for his seventh birthday. Then his eighth. And every birthday after," Adami writes in her new op-ed, I'm Alive Today Because of Life-Saving Medical Research.

The next 12 years brought drug regimen after drug regimen and three clinical trials. "Six times I thought we'd finally beaten it, and six times it came back," she writes. By 2018, Adami had exhausted every option her doctors could provide. Then she was offered the chance to participate in a clinical trial for an immunotherapy, CAR T-cell therapy, which harnesses a patient's own immune system to recognize and eliminate cancer.


"Within 30 days of receiving CAR T-cell immunotherapy, the cancer was gone," Adami writes. She has been in complete remission for more than eight years. "Thanks to well-funded medical research of the past, the promise of immunology is here today. I'm alive because scientists invested in immunology decades before I needed it. But we aren't done," Adami writes.

Adami's recovery is one example of what immunotherapy is already doing for patients. Immunotherapies are extending lives for people with melanoma, lung cancer and certain leukemias and lymphomas, including the type of lymphoma Adami was diagnosed with. Immunology research also has the potential to help prevent and cure heart disease, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, ALS, muscular dystrophy, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and multiple sclerosis.

Read Adami's full op-ed here.
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Prop 38 will provide $8.4 billion to advance immunology research to help prevent and treat cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease, and other persistent diseases. Federal research funding cuts halted at least 160 active clinical trials nationwide in 2025, stalling discoveries at the exact moment medical research has momentum.

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 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

Learn more at YESon38.com, including a coalition list and what supporters are saying.

MORE ABOUT LAURIE ADAMI AND BLOOD CANCER UNITED
Laurie Adami is a cancer survivor, immunology patient pioneer, patient advocate and board member of Blood Cancer United Greater Los Angeles. She was diagnosed with stage IV follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2006, received CAR T-cell therapy through a clinical trial in 2018 and has been in complete remission since. She volunteers with Blood Cancer United as a patient and legislative advocate.

Blood Cancer United, formerly The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, is the largest nonprofit funder of blood cancer research. Its mission is to cure blood cancer and improve the quality of life of all patients and their loved ones. Since 1949, the organization has invested more than $1.8 billion in blood cancer research worldwide. Blood Cancer United provides free information and support services to people affected by more than 100 types of blood cancer, and it advocates for patients' access to quality, affordable, coordinated care. Learn more at bloodcancerunited.org.

Blood Cancer United is one of over 70 leading groups to endorse YES on Prop 38.

Robin Swanson
YES on Prop 38
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