Bhumika Patel, MD

I came to the Cleveland Clinic in 2014, when I secured the Edward P. Evan’s Foundation MDS fellowship position in the Department of Translational Hematologic Oncology Research (2014-16) and completed my hematology/oncology fellowship in 2018.

I joined the leukemia program as Associate Staff in 2019, where I have built a clinical protocol studying the implications of clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential in cancer survivorship and the implications of cancer treatment on the clonal dynamics. My research for the past five years has focused on clinical application of various genomic sequencing techniques to explore the clonal complexities of myeloid malignancies and bone marrow failure conditions. Specifically, I clarified the complex interactions among chromosomal abnormalities and point mutations and identified ancestral/founder events to recapitulate the clonal hierarchy of the mutations. These results have helped uncover the molecular underpinnings of the clinical heterogeneity of the myeloid neoplasia, while identification of ancestral molecular events have helped identify targetable mutations, and have made prognostication more accurate. My goals are now to apply this understanding of molecular biology of myeloid neoplasia and to clarify the best application of currently available therapies.