Chapter 05: Inspired by Dr. J Freireich
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Description
Dr. Hortobagyi recounts how, early in his second year of his residency, he attended an American Cancer Society conference in Columbus, Ohio, where he heard Dr. Emil (J) Freireich give a talk. Dr. Hortobagyi notes that no one was talking about curing cancer in the early seventies, and he describes how inspiring it was to hear Dr. J Freireich state that he believed it was possible to cure the disease.
Dr. Hortobagyi explains that hearing this talk inspired him to apply for a fellowship at MD Anderson. He wrote to J Freireich, who approved hired him without even speaking with him.
Dr. Hortobagyi confesses his love of automobiles and tells an anecdote about buying his first car–a blue Dodge Challenger-with no money and no credit.
Dr. Hortobagyi tells how he loaded his belongings in his car and drove down to Houston, despite the fact that everyone told him, “Nobody goes to Texas.” On arriving, he immediately went to the hospital and introduced himself to the head of the Breast Service, George Blumenschein.
Identifier
HortobagyiGN_01_20121130_C05
Publication Date
11-30-2012
Publisher
The Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD, Oral History Interview, November 30, 2012
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - Joining MD Anderson/Coming to Texas; Portraits; Joining MD Anderson; Personal Background; Professional Path; Inspirations to Practice Science/Medicine; Influences from People and Life Experiences; Funny Stories; Character, Values, Beliefs, Talents
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD:
So that was one [inspiration to specialize in oncology]. And then the other one was—and then early in my second year I got a notice that there would be an American Cancer Society-sponsored conference in Columbus, Ohio, where Ohio State is. So, I drove down and registered for that, and one of the speakers was [Emil] J Freireich. And he gave a super talk—one of those go get them and—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What did he say? What do you remember?
Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD:
Oh, it was—it was so inspiring because he didn’t give the usual pathology talk of this is the way cancer looks under the microscope and there is not a damn thing we can do about it anyway. So—but it is an interesting thing. He essentially started talking about how to cure cancer, and it was such a different view of the world. So, I went back to Cleveland and I wrote to J and applied for a fellowship, and then it was pretty much decided in my mind that I wanted to do oncology. So then—not wanting to put all my eggs in one basket—I applied to a few other places, went and did some interviews, and then eventually got accepted here.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Now did I read that J Freireich wrote you back and said you were hired.
Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD:
Yeah.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
And he didn’t even interview you.
Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD:
Correct.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
And now I want to know what you wrote in that letter.
Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD:
Nothing special actually, I just wrote to him that I had gone to his—that I am a second-year resident in such and such place, that I had listened to him at the ACS conference and it knocked the socks off my feet, and I am going to train in oncology and I wanted to train in his department. I think that is all I wrote. I have never been good at sucking up to anyone, and I’ve never been very good at embellishing things either. So, I just wrote that. And it is true—they never interviewed me here.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
I was just curious—I mean—I didn’t think you had sucked up or anything, but I was thinking—wow, I was wondering how maybe you communicated that interest that you have in the Wild West of medicine because that is certainly what they were doing here.
Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD:
Yeah.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Exactly what they were doing here.
Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD:
That is exactly what it was.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
I know. So how did it work out? How did you end up? What were the practicalities of moving from Cleveland down here to MD Anderson?
Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD:
What were the practicalities? By that time, I had, of course, established a little group of friends in Cleveland. And in fact, I found some childhood friends of my mother who happened to be living in Cleveland. I had a couple of girlfriends in Cleveland, and so it became a little bit harder to separate, but eventually that happened. So, I loaded all of my earthly belongings in my car. I have to tell you a funny story. During my first year in Cleveland, public transportation in Cleveland was not exactly tops—a little bit better than in Houston but not tops—so I needed a car. I needed a car, but what most Americans don’t realize is that as a newcomer immigrant you don’t have credit. And of course, you don’t have credit because you don’t have credit. And to get that first credit card is—it is like pulling teeth. So, I had to pay cash for everything, and then I wanted to buy a car but didn’t have enough money to buy a car. So, I went up to a dealership and negotiated a price for a car that I just fell in love with. It was a Dodge Challenger. It was a beautiful navy-blue Dodge Challenger with a huge engine. So, I went up to my boss—the head of medicine—in saying I want to buy this car, but I need someone to cosign for me. But of course, I didn’t know what possessed me—and more importantly what possessed him to sign for me—because I would not for someone totally unknown. I mean it is crazy. So, he said, “What do you want to buy?” So, I said, “I want to buy this Dodge Challenger.” “How much is it going to cost you?” “It’s $4500.” “You’re crazy. You can buy a car for $500. You can buy a used Chevy or a Ford. You don’t need such a car.” “No, I need to have this car.” And he cosigned for me. He cosigned for me, so I got my brand new, gorgeous car. And from then on, I was a free man. And I of course paid off the car in a couple of years and got him off the hook for it, but I still remember him—Dr. Wieland. So, I loaded all of my earthly belongings into this Dodge Challenger—which was a two-door—and drove down to Houston. So, you can imagine how many earthly belongings I had—very few. In the process of driving down—oh, and so I drove into town. I had no idea what Houston was like. In fact, folks in Cleveland were asking me, “Are you crazy? What are you going to do in Texas? Nobody goes to Texas. They shoot people there.” And in retrospect, to realize the image that Texas had—and to some extent still has outside of this beautiful state—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, I moved down just a little over a year ago, and people said the same—virtually the same thing to me—
Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD:
Yeah.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
—when I was making my plans.
Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD:
So I drove in and found the medical center. Then of course, there was no GPS at that time, so I found it. And I found a little motel down on South Main. I didn’t know that was hooker’s alley, but it was the—what was it called—the Roadrunner. And I remember I paid $14.99 a night. And at that time I didn’t have great ambitions, so it didn’t matter. So, I unloaded stuff, came up to the hospital, and introduced myself to everybody and actually started a few days earlier than July 1.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
And that was in 1974?
Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD:
That was in late June 1974. And of course there were no cell phones. I didn’t have an apartment so there was no home phone, and nobody in my family knew where I was. And my dad died during that time. He died in a car accident, and they were trying to get hold of me, and they couldn’t. And finally, several days later they got a hold of Freireich, and Freireich called me and gave me the news. And then—by then my dad had been buried, so there was not much I could do about it. So, I just stayed and continued my stuff. And July1, I remember I went up to the chief of the breast service, and it was Dr. Blumenschein—George Blumenschein. I told him who I was, and I told him that I wanted to do breast cancer research and to make some room for me because as soon as I finished my mandatory rotations, I would come to the breast service. And it turned out that I never finished the mandatory rotations because after the first two rotations I just crossed over to breast. And I stayed there ever since.
Recommended Citation
Hortobagyi, Gabriel N. MD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 05: Inspired by Dr. J Freireich" (2012). Interview Chapters. 1110.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1110
Conditions Governing Access
Open
