Tena Hughes was planning a safari trip in Africa when she suddenly tested positive for Covid.
The infection ruined the vacation of a lifetime, but ultimately saved the Arizona resident’s life.
Without knowing it, she had been suffering from cancer for a year and a half.
The tumors had spread to her brain and were responsible for the “skull-crushing” pain she attributed to migraines.
Her positive Covid test prompted her to seek medical attention, and she considers the virus her ‘savior’.
Ms. Hughes, of Phoenix, has always been active, enjoys hiking and regularly lifts weights. But her cancer ordeal has kept her away from the activities she has always loved
After surgeries to remove the tumors in her brain, Mrs. Hughes underwent several rounds of radiation to her brain. She then began immunotherapy, which shrank the tumor in her spleen
She said, ‘I told [the doctor] about my trip and that I was going to Uganda to see gorillas, and then he said, you know what, COVID saved your life.
“He said if you had gotten on that plane, you would have been dead by the time you reached the right altitude.”
Changes in cabin pressure in an airplane and high altitude cause oxygen levels in the body to drop and pressure between the brain and skull to increase, all of which increase the risk of potentially fatal seizures.
Her trip to Uganda to see animals on safari with a friend was something of a celebration for her, as she had just gotten out of a toxic marriage.
But the impromptu trip was cancelled on the day of departure when Ms Hughes tested positive for Covid.
She had been suffering from severe headaches for a year, but the possibility that she had cancer never occurred to her.
Mrs Hughes told DailyMail.com: The tension in my neck and the stress I felt when he was in our house built up in my neck and it felt like it was gripping my head.
‘And so I had constant headaches.
“I had ibuprofen in my truck. I had it in my purse, I had it in my backpack. I had it in my gym bag. I had it everywhere. I was taking it all the time because I always had a headache. But I always attributed it to my life and my living conditions.”
Her crushing headaches were caused by tumors in her brain, which show up on her MRI scan as white, opaque masses
While she was receiving immunotherapy three years ago, her immune system attacked itself, messing up her liver and kidneys. She was hospitalized for two months
About 10 days after testing positive for the virus and experiencing terrible headaches, she spoke to a doctor over Zoom, who immediately told her to go to the emergency room for an MRI.
When she went to the hospital check-in desk to let them know she was leaving, her doctor, who had been running tests all day, rushed out to stop her
‘Half an hour later… the doctor looked at me and said, “You know, I’ve been doing this a long time and I’m a straight shooter. You have four [tumors] in your brain.’
The swelling behind her left eye was about the size of a golf ball and the swelling was pushing one side of her brain all the way into the other hemisphere.
And he said, “We need to get this removed immediately.”
But doctors performed CT and PET scans and determined she had stage 4 melanoma that had spread to her brain, lungs and spleen.
She’s a weightlifter and avid hiker from Phoenix, so she’s constantly exposed to the bright sun.
But she never noticed a dark spot that could indicate cancer.
Melanoma begins in pigment-producing skin cells, but the cancer can spread to other parts of the body through the lymphatic system.
Melanoma cells can also invade blood vessels and enter the bloodstream. From there, they can spread throughout the body, settling in various organs and forming tumors.
She was then told that less than a fifth of people with the same diagnosis are still alive after five years.
The ordeal was traumatic for her sons, who were convinced their mother would not survive.
The ordeal was incredibly difficult for her sons, who were already dealing with the stress of divorce.
She said: ‘They read about my diagnosis on their phone and thought: Mom is going to die. She’s not coming home.’
“And so it was so traumatic for them. And they’re just now seeing me healthier, doing normal things, having our own home. They’re just now seeing a therapist where they can finally get the help that they need.”
The day after she was diagnosed, she underwent surgery to remove tumors in her brain.
She then underwent multiple rounds of radiation to her brain and finally targeted immunotherapy, which increases the body’s attack power on cancer cells.
However, the immunotherapy proved to be too strong, because her immune system attacked her own body and severe liver and kidney damage occurred.
She chose to have the fourth surgery to remove the tumors, and chose not to undergo chemotherapy. Fortunately, the tumor in her spleen shrank with immunotherapy and the tumor in her lung became smaller.
But that didn’t last long.
She underwent a brand new treatment called TIL, which turbocharges immune cells from her body to specifically target her cancer. She is now completely cancer-free after six treatments
She said, ‘And I stayed like that until 2023, when I had a PET scan and that little tumor in my lung started getting bigger. So I did what I always do, I said, can we remove it?
Last week, Ms. Hughes became the first patient in the state to be effectively cured of her cancer using a new type of immunotherapy called TIL (tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes).
The drug was only approved by the FDA in February and the first patient to receive it was in Arizona.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Mrs Hughes beamed with joy as she said 11 tumours across her body, including several in her brain and chest, had disappeared.
TIL was not an easy treatment though. It caused such severe attacks and pain during each treatment. There were six in total.
The therapy involves removing a portion of a person’s tumor and taking it to a lab. There, scientists extract a type of immune cell called T cells and multiply them by the thousands.
Using this highly personalized elixir of immunotherapy, T cells can get to work immediately after injection and bind to cancer cells that have spread through the blood in various organs.
She said: ‘I wasn’t really optimistic about the TIL treatment because I’ve never seen my cancer spread so quickly in such a short time. So to have that one tumour disappear in the hospital while I was still there. I thought: oh my God, this could work.’
In Arizona, three more patients are in line for the same treatment. Ms. Hughes hopes her story will raise awareness and provide more people with a viable treatment option to beat their metastatic cancer.
“I live on hope,” she said. “And I think nothing is impossible.”
She received the good news on Thursday and her immune system is already running at full speed again.
She can finally resume her active lifestyle of hiking in Arizona and lifting weights at the local gym.
To celebrate, she plans to travel to Paris in the coming months to complete a trip with a close friend that was cut short last fall when doctors in France discovered another tumor.
Then she can finally go to Uganda for her dream safari.
‘I can’t wait. It’s been a long time since I saw her and then the cancer struck again and I had to go home.
‘The time has finally come for me to finish my journey there… I pinch myself every five minutes.’
