Read Time: 5 Minutes
Takeaways:
- At age 21, Tamica was diagnosed with stage 4 adrenocortical carcinoma, an extremely rare cancer that forms in the adrenal glands.
- Now, Tamica is helping raise awareness of adrenal cancer and the need for continued research.
Impact: Through specialized treatment and ongoing adrenal cancer research, Huntsman Cancer Institute is bringing hope to patients facing some of the rarest cancers.
Tamica Taddicken remembers being at her boyfriend’s apartment in Nampa, Idaho, one night. The next thing she remembers is waking up in the emergency room.
The 21-year-old's blood sugar levels had suddenly dropped, causing her to lose consciousness. Until then, she had shown no signs that anything was wrong.
“I didn't know what was happening,” Tamica recalls. “It was really scary.”
As doctors searched for answers, they discovered a massive tumor wrapped around her kidney and major blood vessels. It was so large that it had cracked two ribs and displaced nearby organs.
Tamica’s care team recommended she seek treatment at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah (the U), where specialists regularly treat rare and complex tumors. She agreed, and soon, she was on a gurney boarding an emergency medical flight to Salt Lake City. There, she underwent more testing that provided answers but also confirmed her worst fears.
Just two weeks earlier, Tamica had been a self-described "perfectly healthy" 21-year-old; now, she was facing a one-in-a-million cancer.
A Team in Her Corner
Tamica was diagnosed with stage 4 adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), an extremely rare urologic cancer that forms in the adrenal glands, the small organs located above the kidneys. ACC is so rare that only around one in one million people in the United States are diagnosed with the disease every year.
In Tamica’s case, the cancerous tumor had effectively shut down her pancreas and was secreting an enzyme that caused her blood sugar levels to plummet. Removing the tumor required a complex surgery that also involved removing her left kidney and adrenal gland.
The surgery was successful, and Tamica was able to return home. A year later, however, a CT scan during an emergency room visit for a rapid heart rate revealed that the cancer had spread to her lungs. She returned to Huntsman Cancer Institute for another surgery, and then began receiving a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
Although the combination treatment showed promise, she experienced a rare and severe immune reaction. Tamica and her care team decided to stop active treatment and now continue monitoring her condition through regular scans.
Throughout the whole experience, Tamica developed a deep trust in her care team at Huntsman Cancer Institute.
"Everybody was working together,” she says. “Every single person on my team has made an incredible impact on me. I know they're in my corner.”
Learning a New Harmony
Tamica's team also helped her return to the activities that mattered most to her.
When she was recovering from her first surgery, she felt so physically weak and in pain that she struggled to play the violin, something she had done since she was 12 years old.
“I couldn’t even lift my instrument. I was devastated,” she remembers.
The Supportive Oncology and Survivorship (SOS) team at Huntsman Cancer Institute helped manage her chronic pain through lidocaine infusions, helping her gradually regain function she feared she had lost.
“The first infusion I had, I cried,” she says. “Not because of the medication but because of the relief in my hands. I didn’t think that it would be possible to play again.”
With the help of the SOS team, she is back to playing the instrument she loves, though she still experiences chronic pain and fatigue.
“There’s this misconception that cancer is undergoing treatment and you’re done—your life goes back to normal,” Tamica says. “When your cancer is terminal and ongoing like mine, it’s more like a chronic illness.”
Through it all, however, she says the support she has received at Huntsman Cancer Institute has helped her continue to navigate the challenges of living with cancer after treatment ends.
Hope in Research
Just a year after Tamica began her treatment, Huntsman Cancer Institute opened a research lab specifically studying adrenal cancer.
The Basham Lab, led by Kaitlin Basham, PhD, Huntsman Cancer Institute investigator and assistant professor of oncological sciences at the U, is one of only a few laboratories in the country dedicated to studying this rare disease.
Eager to learn more about the disease she was facing, Tamica became involved with the research team and even toured the lab. During trips to Salt Lake City for appointments, she makes time to meet with researchers and learn about their latest work.
“My cancer may be one in a million, but I’ve also experienced a million little miracles.”
"I find information to be power," she says. "The more I know, the better I can advocate for myself and others.”
Seeing the ongoing research efforts firsthand gives her hope for the future of adrenal cancer care. She has even become a passionate advocate for adrenal cancer awareness and supports efforts to fund research for this rare disease.
Tamica sees research as a source of hope, not only for herself, but for future patients facing the same diagnosis.
"If I live to see the wonders that the research can do, that's fantastic," she says. "But if it helps the next person in line, that's enough for me."
A Series of Miracles
For Tamica, a research lab dedicated to her rare cancer opening shortly after she began treatment is one in a series of miracles she has experienced since her diagnosis.
From an accidental CT scan that revealed her cancer had returned to being able to play the violin again, she’s grateful for each small moment.
“My definition of a miracle has changed,” she says. “The fact that I am able to do a lot of the things I enjoy, despite technically still being terminal, is amazing.”
Looking back, even the way she found out she had cancer was a small miracle.
The night her blood sugar crashed, she had planned to go back home where she lived with her parents. Instead, she stayed at her boyfriend's apartment.
“My parents weren’t home at the time. If I'd gone home, I would have died. There wouldn’t have been anyone there to realize that I had passed out and wasn’t waking up,” she says.
Seven years later, she’s now 28 years old. At times, she didn’t think she’d make it to 26.
“I had a less than 20% chance to make it past 5 years. Even on the days it hurts to be alive, those days are still answered prayers. My cancer may be one in a million, but I’ve also experienced a million little miracles.”