Tara Rhoades

Amy was one of my closest friends growing up. We ran track together as kiddos and played club and high school soccer together. We even got to play against one another in college with Dunn at Boise State and I was playing at the University of Montana. We may have been so excited to see each other that we were chatting and laughing much of the games we played against one another! I was heartbroken when I learned Dunn was sick. I will never forget the day she called to tell me that she was heading to Arizona to the Mayo Clinic.

Fast forward to March 2018, I had a mole that had started to grow and bleed on my neck. I had this mole my entire life so I didn’t think much of it as I finally got to the doctor to have it removed. I should have known better. Soon after getting the call that the mole was in fact melanoma, I was sent pretty quickly to Fred Hutch Cancer Center (formally Seattle Cancer Care Alliance) as I did have a lump on my neck. It was a whirlwind – Initially, they were not sure if the cancer had spread so I was laying in the surgical until being prepared to have the lymph nodes on my neck removed, but the surgeon came in to tell me he spoke with my oncologist and through the PET scan I had that morning they found that the cancer had spread to my liver. I had stage IV melanoma. They decided they did not want to go through with the surgery and rather start treatment. All I could think about at this time was my dear friend Amy Dunn.

I started immunotherapy treatment on  May 18, 2018. We were on the front end of science with Immunotherapy as it had recently been approved and melanoma patients were responding well. The way my oncologist, Dr. Lee explained this to me was that immunotherapy essentially educates your cells to attack the cancer cells. My team at Fred Hutch were very positive about this option and I was just eager to get things started. My treatment was 4 rounds (once every 2 weeks) of the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab followed by single infusions of ipilimumab (once a month). After just over two years I had my very last infusion on July 15, 2020 – the tumors in my neck, my liver, and lungs (the cancer had spread to my lungs in the short time we waited to start treatment) were no longer visible. I was NED (no evidence of disease).

To this day I continue to get CT/MRI scans every three and six months and have regular skin checks with my team at Fred Hutch. Though immunotherapy has left me with a number of side effects I am beyond blessed to be here today. I know Dunn was there with me along my long and hard melanoma journey and she continues to be my guardian angel. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of Dunn.