STATEWIDE — With the clock running on funding, health care leaders are urging the state to keep paying for cancer research. 

Industry experts met Wednesday to discuss the future of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, or CPRIT. 

The agency was approved by voters ten years ago, and has since pumped about $2 billion into finding cures. 

But some lawmakers are calling for CPRIT to become self-sufficient, a move institute leaders say doesn't fit with its mission of high-risk discovery research.  

"This is not an area where self-sufficiency or support from major pharmacutical industry is really going to be realized," said CPRIT Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Jim Willson  

CPRIT has about a billion more left to award. However, CPRIT leaders say so far they've already spurred nearly $8 billion in business activity here in Texas because of their grants. 

And while some lawmakers are calling for it to be self-sufficient, the program has maintained the support of other lawmakers like Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, who attended Wedneday's forum. 

"People need to know what the value of CPRIT has been," Watson said. 

For cancer researcher Tom Yankeelov, who models cancers at UT, getting rid of the institute would be a huge blow to Texas.

"I think it's difficult to overstate the significance of CPRIT," Yankeelov said.