Patient Stories

• Jenny was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare head and neck cancer that affects only 1 in 250,000 people
• The University of Cincinnati Cancer Center built a team around Jenny, including head and neck surgeons, radiation oncologists at the UC Health Proton Therapy Center and speech and swallowing specialists
• Today, Jenny is familiarizing herself with her new normal, while advocating for people newly diagnosed with rare cancers so they know they aren’t alone

When Jenny Hammond was first diagnosed with cancer in September of 2025, she still found a way to laugh about it.

If only one in every 250,000 people are diagnosed each year with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare form of head and neck cancer, why wouldn't she be one of them?

Her sense of humor would carry her through a journey that included major surgery, 30 proton therapy treatments and an unexpected discovery about the true extent of her cancer.

“I always tell people I’m special,” Jenny said. “Just not in the way you necessarily want to be.”

What Jenny wasn’t thinking about when receiving her diagnosis was the proximity to her future care team. Jenny lives in Northern Kentucky so was just a short drive away from University of Cincinnati Cancer Center. Most cancer centers can’t treat cancer this rare, but the UC Cancer Center treats rare head and neck cancer weekly.

Jenny was thinking about how this cancer would affect her family, her husband and two children, her job and the rest of her life. Not the surgery, proton therapy and treatments she would need.

Putting together those pieces was the job of the team at the UC Cancer Center.

A life-changing diagnosis

A few months before her diagnosis, Jenny noticed that her lymph nodes were inflamed. Jenny’s primary care physician found an abnormal white area in her mouth, and an ENT confirmed that there was a swollen mass in the back of her throat.

Jenny was referred to Alice Tang, MD, head and neck cancer surgeon at the UC Cancer Center, to get a biopsy of the tumor that confirmed her diagnosis: stage two adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare form of head and neck cancer that develops in the salivary glands and requires specialized treatment.

Before worrying about how this would affect her own life, Jenny thought about her kids.

“They're at the age where they need me more now than when they were babies,” Jenny said. “So yeah, that was the hardest.”

She remembers thinking that there would be life before her diagnosis, and there would be after.

“My life has changed.”

A team that was ready for anything

The surgery to remove Jenny’s tumor was scheduled for October 2025.

Dr. Tang and Dustin Silverman, MD, a fellow head and neck cancer surgeon at the UC Cancer Center, performed the 14-hour surgery. While Dr. Silverman removed the tumor in Jenny’s mouth, Dr. Tang would take tissue from her left arm to reconstruct the hard and soft palate in her mouth.

It’s a rare diagnosis, but one Jenny’s care team is experienced in. “It’s a daily to weekly thing for our team to see those types of cancers and to treat them,” Dr. Tang explained.

It wasn’t until surgery that Jenny’s care team realized the tumor had progressed further than expected, from stage two to stage four, spreading to her lymph nodes.

But in a room full of specialists, Jenny was in the best hands possible. They successfully removed all of the cancer in Jenny’s mouth and lymph nodes.

“I have seen a lot of people come out of surgery, but seeing my sister come out of surgery was a different story,” said Jenny’s sister, Sara, who is also a nurse at UC Health.

Jenny stayed in the hospital for seven days after her operation. But that was just the beginning of her recovery.

Recovering one step at a time

Before cancer, Jenny never thought twice about swallowing a bite of food or having a conversation with her family and friends.

After treatment, those everyday things were no longer easy.

The changes to her mouth affected how she ate, swallowed and spoke. Jenny began working closely with Farah Kaval, SLP , a speech and swallowing pathologist at UC Health.

“She was very proactive about everything. Anything you told her to do, she did it. She did it the number of times you told her to do it,” said Farah. Her treatment plan also included 30 proton therapy treatments at the UC Health Proton Therapy Center, the only proton therapy center in 100 miles of Cincinnati, with Sara Medek, MD, radiation oncologist.

Proton therapy delivers a high dose of radiation to destroy cancer cells without damaging the healthy tissue around it. This left Jenny’s brainstem, spinal cord and swallowing muscles untouched.

“When it comes to head and neck cancer, these are life changing events. And so, I like to think of my role as trying to make sure that I get her as close to back to normal as possible, and more importantly make sure she has a great quality of life,” Dr. Medek said.

Finding her voice again

One of the most significant changes was Jenny’s speech. She knew exactly what she wanted to say, but after surgery, her voice didn't always sound the way it had before. It was another reminder of how cancer can affect parts of life most people rarely think about until they're gone.

Months after her surgery and proton therapy treatments, Jenny received a custom speech aid prosthetic created by Mi Kim, DMD, an oral and maxillofacial prosthodontics physician at UC Health.

The small device fits inside her mouth and helps compensate for the changes to her palate, making her speech clearer and communication easier.

For Jenny, it represents much more than a medical device.

It helped give her back something cancer had taken from her: her voice.

Staying proactive

As Jenny moved forward, her care team continued to grow around what she needed. Her care expanded to include Joseph Pressey, MD, a pediatric oncologist in the Young Adult Oncology Center at Cincinnati Children’s who focuses on rare tumors and the development of new therapies.

Today, Jenny takes an anti-cancer medication twice a day as part of a proactive approach against cancer coming back.

Her journey will also include ongoing scans, appointments and monitoring. Recently, Jenny received her second set of clear scans.

She knows this will be part of her life for years to come, but isn’t backing down.

Turning her experience into something more

Eight months after surgery, Jenny is still adjusting to her new normal. She is focused on what’s ahead, not dwelling on who she was before.

On the other side of her diagnosis, Jenny wants to be an example and resource to others that are early in their journey with adenoid cystic carcinoma.

“That's really why I want to speak about this. To give someone a resource to say, I hear you, I feel you and I’m with you.”

Today, Jenny sees herself differently than she did before her diagnosis. Not because cancer changed who she is, but because she has grown and realized her own strength.

For the next person facing uncertainty, that’s what Jenny hopes she can pass on: you can do the hard things, and you don’t have to do them alone.

Why choose the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center?

Rare cancers require specialized expertise. At the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center, patients benefit from a multidisciplinary team that includes surgical oncology, proton therapy, speech and swallowing rehabilitation, medical oncology and research specialists—all working together to create personalized treatment plans.

Learn more about our head and neck cancer program, proton therapy center and voice and swallowing disorder program.