After Seven Years and Four Recurrences, Michele Beat the Odds Against Cervical Cancer at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center

Michele Adams thought she had a stubborn urinary tract infection (UTI).

The Shawnee mother and grandmother had been battling recurring UTIs for months in late 2018, and nothing seemed to help. When she finally visited a urologist, he ordered an ultrasound to check her bladder and kidneys.

Within 30 minutes, her phone rang. The doctor found a tumor on her cervix. The news would change her life in ways she sometimes doubted she would be able to handle.

“He gave me the dimensions of the tumor, which was larger than a grapefruit,” Michele said. “I was at my desk at work when the calls about my diagnosis started coming in from the doctors. I just lost it.”

Her gynecologist knew she needed care beyond what he could provide and prioritized getting her to a specialist at OU Health, Oklahoma’s academic health system, right away.

Within days, the 56-year-old Head Start director found herself at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center, beginning what would become a seven-year journey that tested her resolve, her faith, and her will to survive.

A Cancer That Can Be Prevented

Cervical cancer remains one of the most preventable cancers, yet it still claims the lives of approximately 4,000 American women each year. About 13,000 to 14,000 women in the United States were diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2025.

“Most cervical cancer comes from infection from human papillomavirus, and that virus is quite ubiquitous,” said OU Health gynecologic oncologist Dr. Debra Richardson, M.D., FACS, FACOG, section chief and professor of gynecologic oncology at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. “Most Americans will be exposed in their lifetime and potentially infected.”

The good news? Vaccines like Gardasil can help prevent infection or help clear the virus before it causes pre-cancer or cancer. The vaccine is approved for people ages 9 through 45 — boys, girls, men, and women.

“In Australia, they have actually eradicated cervix cancer in women under the age of 25, mostly because of the HPV vaccine,” Dr. Richardson said. “We have not done that yet here in the United States.”

For women who develop cervical cancer, symptoms often don’t appear until the disease has progressed. Warning signs can include bleeding after intercourse, pain during intercourse, pelvic pain, pain in the buttock that radiates down the leg, and swelling of the lower legs.

“Ideally, you won’t get cervix cancer, or if you do, it’s picked up super early where you have zero symptoms,” Dr. Richardson said. “When women have symptoms, that usually indicates a visible tumor or [an] even more advanced stage.”

An Ongoing Struggle to Overcome

When Michele arrived at Stephenson Cancer Center in 2019, her care team didn’t hesitate.

“She was super sweet, but very blunt,” Michele said of her first oncologist. “She thought it was an aggressive cancer because it was so large. She said she was going to make them hurry with the biopsy results.”

Throughout all this, Michele had one thought consuming her. Her youngest son was getting married in May 2019. She was terrified she wouldn’t live to see it.

“I thought I was a goner,” she said.

Her first round of treatment included chemotherapy, followed by 25 external radiation treatments over five weeks, and then five internal radiation treatments every other day that required anesthesia. The tumor responded quickly, shrinking almost immediately. By the end of treatment, only scar tissue remained, and she was able to see her son get married.

But the cancer had already spread to three lymph nodes.

“That’s what the real battle has been,” Michele said.

Over the next several years, the cancer returned four times. Michele participated in three clinical trials through Stephenson Cancer Center, an option available because of the center’s designation as a National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Center.

“The National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommends that all patients with cancer who are eligible for a clinical trial be offered a clinical trial,” Dr. Richardson said. “We feel that this is our best chance of potentially improving the outcomes of the patient we’re treating, and also improving the care in the future of all people affected by that cancer. The only way we make strides is by doing clinical trials.”

Finding the Right Treatment

After participating in a clinical trial that showed promising results for the addition of the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab to chemotherapy and bevacizumab, Michele learned she had been receiving a placebo rather than the actual drug. When her cancer recurred again she enrolled on a clinical trial with immunotherapy. When she completed that trial, she opted to transition to pembrolizumab. Once she began immunotherapy treatment, everything changed.

“Pembrolizumab has been the only thing that has ever worked for me completely and totally,” Michele said. “I was very lucky with it. I had absolutely no side effects.”

The immunotherapy kept her cancer at bay for nearly four years. When the cancer on one lymph node began growing again in 2025, her care team responded with 25 more radiation treatments combined with continued immunotherapy.

“Michele is really a remarkable patient,” Dr. Richardson said. “She has been on immunotherapy for about five years. She did have a small growth in one of her lymph nodes, and we radiated that and put her back on pembrolizumab. Currently, she is in remission, which I consider really remarkable.”

Just before Christmas 2025, Michele received news that exceeded everyone’s expectations. Not only had her lymph nodes shrunk, they were once again considered normal size.

“Dr. Richardson put her hand on my shoulder and said, ‘I thought you might not beat this, but here you are,’” Michele said, her voice catching. “I bawled like a baby.”

The Power of Persistence

Through seven years of treatment and monitoring, Michele never missed a day of work. She credits her survival to her care team’s refusal to give up and her own determination to see her family grow.

​“They didn’t give up,” she said of her Stephenson Cancer Center team. “Nobody has ever given up. They keep trying. It was the persistence.”

Dr. Richardson emphasized that the multidisciplinary approach at OU Health, the University of Oklahoma’s academic health system, plays a crucial role in treating complex cancers.

“Multidisciplinary care is really important when we’re talking about complex cancers,” she said. “For cervix cancer, it’s usually collaboration between the gynecologic oncologist and the radiation oncologist. It really does benefit a patient to be able to be treated with different disciplines that have different expertise.”

Michele watched her son get married in 2019. She held her first grandchild, a boy named Hayes, who is now 2 ½. In June 2026, she’ll welcome a granddaughter named Elaine.

“I never, ever thought I would live to see a grandchild,” Michele said. “A lot of times I think that just the hope of living long enough to see that, and babies not having to know Gigi just from stories, was what kept me going.”

A Message for Other Women

Michele has already sent two friends to Stephenson Cancer Center. She remains open about her journey, hoping her story will encourage other women to get screened and to never give up hope.

“I didn’t know what my story was going to be. I didn’t know what my journey was going to be like,” she said when her diagnosis first came. “But if I can keep one person from giving up, just one, then it’s worth me being honest about it.”

Dr. Richardson urges all women to prioritize a Pap test and or HPV testing to screen for cervical cancer, which is recommended from ages 21 to 65 for average risk women. Ask your physician about the recently approved FDA approved self-screening tool for women who may be hesitant about the in-office exam.

“Please don’t let fear interfere with your ability to get healthcare,” Dr. Richardson said. “We really can prevent this cancer from happening or detect it at a very early stage when it is very curable.”

For Michele, the message is simple.

“You need to have a good support system,” she said. “If you don’t have one, find a friend or somebody that will stand by you. And don’t give up. It’s hard. It is so hard. But I’m still here.”

Learn more about cervical cancer screening, prevention, and treatment at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center.