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Meet Clifford A. Hudis, MD

Apr 18, 2012

Chief of Breast Cancer Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and 2012–2013 ASCO President-Elect
 

AC: What led you to oncology?
Dr. Hudis: I chose oncology because I loved taking care of patients and confronting serious health challenges with them. I had a tremendous optimism that the field would rapidly evolve throughout my career, and I thought that would be an exciting thing to be a part of.

AC: What’s the last book you read?
Dr. Hudis: I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey, by Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish. It’s a nonfiction story about a Gaza fertility specialist who is trained and works in Israel, and his resilience and optimism in the face of an unspeakable tragedy during the Israeli occupation of Gaza. It’s a great book and he’s an amazing person and physician.

AC: What’s your favorite website?
Dr. Hudis: I’m a news junkie. The website I visit the most is news.google.com. I like that it aggregates the top stories—not just news and politics, but also science, entertainment, and whatever else you find interesting.

AC: Who is the person you most admire?
Dr. Hudis: My father. He was born in a time of turmoil (1938, at the end of the Depression and beginning of World War II) and lived in an environment of relative privilege, where kids went to college, and some got to travel—but he didn’t. He became a self-made businessman who built something for our family from absolutely nothing. The business he built is called Quaker Valley Foods, a wholesale food business. My brother and cousin currently own it.

AC: What career could you see yourself in if you weren’t an oncologist?
Dr. Hudis: I could have seen myself as an economist—but my friends and colleagues say they could have seen me as a prosecutor because I’m a “persistent questioner.”

AC: What hobbies do you enjoy?
Dr. Hudis: When I have time for hobbies, I surf, I bicycle, and I ski. But what I do that’s sillier is buy a lot of technology and play with it. My wife notes that I have a closet filled with all kinds of cables and junk that represents the failed little experiments of my technology life. I have a stack of different kinds of hard drives, computers, keyboards, mice, and headsets. My only defense is that it does not take up much space and I don’t have a garage or a basement!

AC: Do you have a personal motto?
Dr. Hudis: The Golden Rule: “Treat others as you would have them treat you.”

AC: What is your fondest memory?
Dr. Hudis: Sitting and enjoying lunch and conversation in the tropical shade with my wife and sons.

AC: What would you say to a young physician thinking about entering the field of oncology?
Dr. Hudis: Ignore the widespread perceptions that medicine is besieged or that oncology is a difficult field. Oncology offers us the greatest opportunities for a fulfilling and rewarding life—for the same reason today that it did when I went into it almost 25 years ago. This is a specialty where you get as close to patients as possible. You help them confront and manage their worst fears, you help families the same way, and at the same time you deal with the most cutting-edge and exciting technology in medicine. I know there’s a popular focus on the economics—but as with all other pursuits in life, the greatest satisfaction will come to those who are able to put that part of our profession a bit to the side and really just focus on what they love.


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