AUSTIN (October 2, 2009)--A new state agency in Texas is ready to spend as much as $3 billion over the next decade trying to find a cure for cancer, which would make the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas the nation's second-largest source of cancer research funding, behind only the National Cancer Institute.

Lance Armstrong, the cycling champion and cancer survivor, helped sell the plan to Texas voters in 2007 through a bond measure.

The first wave of funding is expected by spring.

Institute leaders say the money will gamble on high-risk research and attract big-name scientists to Texas, but a sagging economy has some skittish about future funding.

State lawmakers already did not fully fund the institute over the first two years, leaving $150 million on the table.