Closing Racial and Geographic Gaps in Blood Cancer Care

E. Anders Kolb, MD, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist and researcher who serves as president and chief executive officer of Blood Cancer United, reflects on what decades of blood cancer research have meant for oncology as a whole — and on the disparities in access that still separate patients from the benefits of that progress.

Kolb traces a direct line from blood cancer research to some of the field's most consequential advances: the first highly effective combination chemotherapy regimens, developed for Hodgkin's disease and acute lymphoblastic leukemia; rituximab (Rituxan), the first monoclonal antibody approved for cancer treatment, which opened the door to today's antibody-drug conjugates and cellular immunotherapies; and imatinib (Gleevec), the first targeted, precision-medicine therapy in oncology. Blood cancers, he says, have repeatedly served as the "tip of the spear" for discoveries that go on to benefit patients well beyond the blood cancer space.

That progress has not reached all patients equally. Kolb points to Blood Cancer United's Life Year Saved analysis, which shows Black patients have not benefited the same as white patients from advances in blood cancer treatment. He also outlines the geographic and financial barriers — distance from major treatment centers, cost, and insurance coverage — that keep increasingly complex therapies out of reach for some patients, arguing that access to effective therapy should never be determined by race or address.

Kolb closes by connecting Blood Cancer Awareness Month (September) to Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month, noting that while cancers are rare in children, the Life Year Saved framework captures the outsized value of extending a child's life expectancy — underscoring what's at stake for community oncology teams in closing these gaps.