UP FRONT
Pulling Back the Curtain
Clara Bloomfield, MD
In this edition, Clara Bloomfield, MD, talks about being on the right project at the
right time and having academia in her blood. Dr. Bloomfield is a Distinguished
University Professor, the William G. Pace III Endowed Chair in Cancer Research,
and cancer scholar and senior advisor at The Ohio State University Comprehensive
Cancer Center.
Dr. Bloomfield at her office in Ohio.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Washington, D.C.,
during World War II. My father
was on the National War Labor
Board, and after the war ended,
he took a faculty position at
the University of Illinois, so we
moved to Champaign-Urbana.
My father was a professor of
labor and industrial relations,
and my mother stayed at home
with my brother and me until I
was in the first grade, when she
decided to go to law school. When
I graduated from high school, she
graduated from law school.
When you were growing
up, what career did you see
yourself in?
It’s really simple: Nothing other
than academia.
Why was that such a clear
path for you?
From the beginning, there was a
focus on academia in our house-
hold. Nearly every weekend,
our parents hosted University
of Illinois faculty or visiting fac-
ulty from around the country
for dinner. So, I was exposed to
academia and was always learn-
ing about how to succeed in aca-
demia. Also, when I was 4 years
old, my mother put me in elocu-
tion lessons to learn how to give
talks, so that tells you something
about how important academia
was to our family.
My brother and I took that
message to heart: I remember
once, when I was about 9 years
old, she told us that she was go-
ing to stop going to law school
because she felt like she wasn’t
spending enough time with us.
Well, my brother and I both start-
ed to scream and cry. We didn’t
want her to leave school because
then we wouldn’t be able to boast
about it to our friends!
I grew up in a time when the
concept of formal mentorship
simply did not exist. So, I looked
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to my parents, and they certainly
had a substantial impact on what I
ended up doing.
When did medicine enter
the equation?
It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact
moment. I went to medical school
in 1964, after all. Neither of my
parents had anything to do with
medicine, so I’m not sure where
the idea came from. But this is
what I do remember: When I
was probably 5 years old, I liked
to play nurse and pretend to
give shots, like most kids do. Of
course, I liked to be the one giv-
ing shots, not the one receiving
them. One day, I came home and
told my mother, “I know what I’m
gonna be when I grow up.” She
said, “That’s nice, dear. What are
you going to be?” I said proudly,
“I’m gonna be a nurse.” She looked
at me and said, matter-of-factly,
“You’re gonna be a nurse? You
might as well be a doctor.” That’s
how it happened!
Certainly, I don’t want to give
the impression that there was
something wrong about becom-
ing a nurse, but my mother had
high ambitions for me. At the
time, nursing and teaching were
the conventional professions for
women; as a mother who went to
law school in the 1950s, I think she
wanted me to know I could choose
my own path – just as she had.
Once I decided to pursue a
career in medicine, I initially
wanted to focus on public health,
but eventually, my interests turned
toward cancer. Honestly, I’m not
entirely sure why; it’s just been
part of my life for so long now, I
can’t remember when it wasn’t.
Looking back on your
career, what are your
proudest accomplishments?
That’s a difficult question, perhaps
because of the way I was brought
up. In academia, you publish your
research and you do things that
matter. You don’t necessarily think
about being “proud” of them.
There are important accom-
plishments in my career, though.
The first was in 1973, when I
published that older patients with
acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
should be treated. That was the
first time it had been proposed;
in those days, if a patient was
older than 65, the view was that
the patient wouldn’t be able to
tolerate chemotherapy and there-
fore shouldn’t be treated inten-
sively. The average age of AML
diagnosis is 67, so this left a large
portion of the AML population
going untreated.
I published an article in JAMA
saying that these patients should
be intensively treated like other
patients with AML.
That paper was important for
my career, which was still in its
early stages, and for the treatment
of older adults with AML. In 1973,
no one believed in treating them.
Immediately after I published my
results, I was invited all over the
country to give talks about this
topic, and usually by very senior
people in the field who vehement-
ly disagreed with my findings.
Later, they would come back to
me and say I was right.
So, that’s a good thing to have
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