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Your name (replaces "[Your name]" in the letter) Subject Letter (edit freely)

Dear Secretary Kennedy, Commissioner, and colleagues at HHS and the FDA,

I am writing about a number reported on the CBC with differential that deserves discussion with the treating team: the absolute lymphocyte count.

Lymphocytes are the cells that find and kill cancer. Chemotherapy and radiation destroy them, and the research on what follows is not new. Severe treatment-related lymphopenia is associated with roughly twice the hazard of death in glioma, pancreatic and lung cancer (Grossman et al., JNCCN 2015). A meta-analysis of 20 studies found the same (Damen et al., 2021). A review found median counts near a quarter of baseline after intracorporeal radiotherapy, with incomplete recovery within one year in studies reporting follow-up (Sandul et al., 2025). Treatment-specific monitoring and infection-prevention guidance exists, but the role of lymphocyte-restoring treatment across solid tumors still needs controlled research. The test costs Medicare about $7.77 and needs no new blood draw.

I am asking for three things:

1. Read and record the count. Direct that the absolute lymphocyte count and a pre-treatment baseline be documented and discussed for every patient receiving cancer therapy, the way the neutrophil count already is.

2. Set a threshold. Ask the guideline bodies and the FDA's oncology center to define when a low count should trigger action, and to fund the randomized trials that will tell us what that action should be.

3. Make access fair. Where an FDA-authorized expanded-access program or trial exists for restoring the count, patients should be able to reach it through their own oncologist, not through connections.

The story that brought me here is at LymphocyteCount.org: Beth Kompothecras was declared cancer-free with a count of 525, and nobody mentioned it. The sources for every figure above are linked at lymphocytecount.org/evidence.html.

[Optional: add your own story or your own number here.]

Thank you for reading this, and for anything you can do to make sure the next patient's number is read.

Respectfully,
[Your name]

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Send to HHS and the FDA

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Where it goes

The addresses

These are the public channels each office publishes. The Secretary does not publish a personal email, so the letter reaches HHS through the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, and Secretary Kennedy by post and on X.

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The Honorable Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Secretary of Health and Human Services
Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201

Phone: 1-877-696-6775 · X: @SecKennedy Source: hhs.gov/about/contact-us · hhs.gov leadership page Post to @SecKennedy on X

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health

HHS · receives health-policy correspondence for the Department ASH@hhs.gov

200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Room 716G
Washington, D.C. 20201 · 202-690-7694

Source: health.gov/about-oash/contact-us

FDA — Office of the Commissioner

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner@fda.hhs.gov

Office of the Commissioner
10903 New Hampshire Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20993 · 1-888-INFO-FDA

The Commissioner's correspondence address, routed through the FDA Executive Secretariat. Source: fda.gov/about-fda/fda-commissioner (office), CDER reference guide (address, phone)

FDA — Division of Drug Information

Center for Drug Evaluation and Research · public inquiries about drugs druginfo@fda.hhs.gov

Division of Drug Information, CDER
10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Bldg 51, Rm 1109
Silver Spring, MD 20993 · 301-796-3400

Source: fda.gov CDER reference guide

Go further

Three more ways to be heard

Your own representatives

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Your oncologist

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Your story

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We are not affiliated with HHS, the FDA or any official. Addresses were checked against the agencies' own pages on September 6, 2026; if one has changed, tell us.