In an interview with SOHO Insider, E. Anders Kolb, MD, president and CEO of Blood Cancer United, discusses a study published in Blood Advances titled, “New Analysis Presents Years of Life Saved as the Most Accurate Measure of Progress Against Blood Cancer.” Dr. Kolb detailed how a new “life-years saved” methodology measures the impact of therapeutic innovations, which have successfully yielded an estimated 25.8 million life-years saved in the United States.
Dr. Kolb also addressed critical gaps in care, noting that survival progress has heavily lagged for older patients with acute myeloid leukemia and for Black patients. Warning that future gains are not guaranteed if research funding decreases or if patients lose coverage like Medicaid, Kolb concluded, “The past 75 years prove that when we invest in scientific discovery, we give patients more time.”
Parameters for increasing life-years saved include sustained research investment across the public and private sectors and faster development of first-in-class drugs specifically in acute myeloid leukemia and other myeloid cancers, according to a Blood Cancer United press release that announced the Blood Advances analysis.
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