Pulling Back the Curtain
Allison Rosenthal, DO
In this edition, Allison Rosenthal, DO, recounts her experience as a leukemia
patient during young adulthood, which destined her for a career in malignant
hematology and landed her on a billboard in Arizona. Dr. Rosenthal is assistant
professor of medicine and senior associate consultant in the Division of
Hematology/Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix.
Dr. Rosenthal with her parents and two sisters on family vacations (at right) and at the 2017 Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Man & Woman of the Year gala (lower left).
What did you want to be
when you grew up?
From a young age, I wanted to be
a doctor. I spent part of my child-
hood in Chicago, where my dad
coached high school football. I
remember doing cartwheels on
the football field during halftime,
and the players and coaches
would ask me, “What do you
want to be when you grow up?” I
always said, “A doctor.”
I attended Utah State
University as a student athlete
for my undergraduate educa-
tion and then started medical
school at Midwestern University
in Illinois a year earlier than
planned. My plan was to take
the MCAT at the end of college,
take a year off to gain some ex-
perience working in a hospital,
and then start medical school.
But it turned out that I didn’t
have to wait: A person who was
admitted to the class decided to
defer medical school for a year
to be on a reality TV show, so
I jumped at the chance to get a
head start achieving my dream.
Then, in my second year of
medical school, I was diagnosed
with acute promyelocytic leukemia.
How did that diagnosis
change your career path?
I took a year off to undergo chemo-
therapy and I came back to school
while I was still on active treat-
ments. For a while, I stuck to my
original plan to become an or-
thopedic surgeon; the entire time,
though, my doctor told me, “You’re
going to go into oncology.” I was
defiant at first, but once enough
time had passed since the experi-
ence, I realized that oncology was
absolutely what I was supposed
to be doing. Then, things fell into
place.
Even though your decision
to pursue hematology was
the result of an unexpected,
life-changing event, do you
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ASH Clinical News
think you found where you
were “meant to be?”
Yes, I believe that hematology/
oncology is my calling. I’m a hard
worker and I can find enjoyment
in anything, but I doubt I would
be as happy if I was doing some-
thing else.
If I had to pick another ca-
reer, it would be another medical
specialty. Practicing medicine
can be stressful, but I love it.
Even though the days are long,
I can’t imagine doing anything
else. The relationships I have with
my patients and colleagues are
“Often, cancer is thought
of as something that
happens to older people,
but it’s a completely
different experience for a
24-year-old.”
July 2018