Kidney Cancer Survivor Backs CA Research Measure After 8 Years

When Ruben Narvaez received a terminal stage IV kidney cancer diagnosis in 2018, doctors told him to get his affairs in order. He had days, maybe months, to live.

Eight years later, the Southern California grandfather is still here, thriving and spending time with his children and grandchildren. The difference? A breakthrough immunotherapy clinical trial that taught his immune system to recognize and fight cancer.

"I am living evidence that medical breakthroughs can change what it means to receive a diagnosis," Narvaez said. Those eight years have brought birthdays, holidays, trips, and everyday moments he thought cancer had stolen from him.

Now Narvaez is sharing his story across California airwaves and in newspapers to support Proposition 38, a measure that would provide $8.4 billion for immunology research. The funding would accelerate work on cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease, and other persistent diseases.

Immunotherapies harness the body's own immune system to prevent and treat illness. They're already successfully treating patients with melanoma, lung cancer, leukemia, and lymphoma, and Proposition 38 would fund the next generation of research for Parkinson's, diabetes, ALS, muscular dystrophy, and multiple sclerosis.

Narvaez's support is personal beyond his own survival. He's lost family members to ALS, heart attacks, dementia, and AIDS, and he knows uncertainty touches every family.

"My support for Proposition 38 is also about my children and grandchildren," Narvaez said. "We don't know what medical breakthrough they may need someday. But the research has to begin before they need it."

The Ripple Effect

The timing matters more than ever. Federal research funding cuts have shut down at least 160 active clinical trials nationwide after National Institutes of Health grants were terminated in 2025. California universities began curtailing biomedical research and delaying hiring as federal grants disappeared, just as immunology science was gaining momentum.

Proposition 38 includes built-in accountability measures: a two percent cap on state administrative expenses, public disclosure of spending, independent financial audits, and a ban on for-profit corporations receiving grant funding. The measure is designed to pay for itself through licensing agreements, with ten percent of all proceeds from immunotherapies developed under Prop 38 returning to California to offset costs. Any cure or treatment developed will be provided to California patients at a 20 percent discount below the national average.

For Narvaez, the choice is clear: start the research now so families won't run out of time waiting for breakthroughs that could save their lives.