The new Clara D. Bloomfield Center for Leukemia Outcomes Research will continue the pursuit of studies at Ohio State in hematologic malignancies, including acute leukemias, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and clonal hematopoiesis. Bloomfield, a Distinguished University Professor who held the William Greenville Pace III Endowed Chair in Cancer Research and also served as cancer scholar and senior adviser to the OSUCCC – James, was internationally renowned for her many discoveries and achievements relating to those diseases. Her research was sufficiently impactful to result in her election to the National Academy of Medicine, an honor that very few clinical researchers receive. Until her untimely death in March 2020 at age 77, she continued her research as ardently as ever.
Bloomfield’s work over nearly half a century — including 23 years at Ohio State (1997-2020) — had tremendous worldwide impact, resulting in the incorporation of cytogenetic and molecular genetic findings in the diagnosis of acute leukemias for the first time in the 2001 World Health Organization (WHO) classification, and into patient management in hematologic malignancies, including selecting therapy in the most widely adopted clinical practice guidelines in oncology: those of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN).
Earlier in her career, Bloomfield was the first to suggest and demonstrate that adults with acute leukemia, including the elderly, could be cured with chemotherapy, and to demonstrate that biomarkers, including chromosomal abnormalities, constitute independent prognostic factors that can be used to predict outcomes and to select treatment in adults with acute leukemia or lymphoma — a forerunner to personalized or precision medicine.
In the early 1980s, she was instrumental in establishing Central Karyotype Review for trials conducted by Cancer and Leukemia Group B, which not only ensured a high quality of data for clinical and translational studies but also became the model for other cooperative groups and contributed substantially toward improving the quality of leukemia karyotyping in this country. Bloomfield also first identified several now-classic chromosome changes with prognostic significance in leukemia and lymphoma, and she was considered by most to be the world’s authority on how chromosome changes, certain gene mutations and gene expression changes influence treatment and outcomes in adults with leukemia.
The new center dedicated to her memory and lifework will build upon her prognostication research with the goal to better classify and risk-stratify leukemia and associated diseases, including the identification of personalized treatment options for individual patients.
Along with her pioneering research, one of Bloomfield’s greatest attributes — and one that she was most proud of — was her endearing mentorship and fierce advocacy for junior faculty. The list of successful faculty whom she mentored is long. Justice by gender and race was a critical part of her work. She was a sage mentor for faculty and staff — even for senior staff.
The new center, which will be supported by a $5 million OSUCCC commitment, initially will be led by the team of John C. Byrd, MD, a Distinguished University Professor in the Division of Hematology at Ohio State and co-leader of the Leukemia Research (LR) Program at the OSUCCC – James, and Ann-Kathrin Eisfeld, MD, an assistant professor in the Division of Hematology and member of the LR Program. Byrd and Eisfeld both were mentees of Bloomfield.
“This center will be a worthy tribute not only to Dr. Bloomfield’s achievements, but also to all who were privileged to be mentored by her or to work with her during her many years at Ohio State,” says OSUCCC director Raphael E. Pollock, MD, PhD, FACS. “She played an incalculable role in our shared vision of creating a cancer-free world, and we’re honored to extend her legacy through a center bearing her name.”