"This allows us to establish and open clinical research here in El Paso that will directly affect patients," said Dr. Zeina Nahleh, chief of the school's Division of Hematology and Oncology. "They will have access to new medications, new treatments that they would not otherwise have had."

The school's Cancer Clinical Research Core facility has a goal of enrolling between 50 and 100 patients in the first year because of the grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. University Medical Center will provide nursing support for the patients involved, some of whom will come from Beaumont Army Medical Center.

"Our patients here don't always have multiple options," Nahleh said.

Nahleh said as many as 30 percent of El Paso cancer patients could be involved in clinical trials as the program grows, which would be well above the national average. The trials probably will focus on the most common illnesses, which include breast, lung and colon cancers, she said. However, pediatric and gynecologic oncologists will participate, and the program will include preventive screening, she said.

"With cancer treatment, there is always room for improvement," Nahleh said. "We don't cure everyone. We're not satisfied with the standard, we want to do better."

Trials will "provide better options and better treatment than the standard treatment," she said.

The grant announced Wednesday also brings jobs, said Bill Gimson, executive director of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. The institute was established by a 2007 constitutional amendment that authorized the state to issue $3 billion in bonds to fund research, prevention and service programs. The grant will allow hiring of eight researchers, a lab technician and an information technology person, he said.

Grant applications are chosen by a panel of researchers who do not live in Texas, Gimson said.

"They really look at the quality of the (proposed) research," Gimson said. "And they look at the principal investigator. They know she (Nahleh) has got the credentials to pull it off."

The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso received a nearly $2.7 million grant from the cancer institute earlier this year. It provides colorectal cancer screening for older Hispanic residents who lack adequate health insurance.

That grant provides services to an underserved group -- low-income El Pasoans -- Gimson said. Both grants target an understudied group, Hispanics, he said.

Gimson said efforts to establish a Medical Center of the Americas, which will include medical research and the manufacture of devices and pharmaceutical drugs, was "indirectly, extremely important" in awarding the grants. He said the dedication to medical innovation provides a supportive environment making it more likely the programs will succeed.

Chris Roberts may be reached at chrisr@elpasotimes.com; 546-6136.