Gunner’s Mate, Petty Officer Second Class Jay Pena landed in Southern California exhausted but determined, grateful he’d made it home the night before his mother’s surgery. Ana Radjevic had been diagnosed in 2023 with Stage 4 cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive bile duct cancer, and doctors warned her that her chances of living beyond five years were slim. So Pena quickly secured emergency leave from his deployment in Djibouti, intent on making sure his mother wouldn’t face the fight of her life alone. What neither of them could have imagined was that just 54 days later, Pena would be sitting in a doctor’s office himself, hearing devastating news of his own.
Pena had felt a growth about a month into his mother’s recovery from surgery. After several doctor visits he kept secret from her, Pena finally went to Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital, where he was diagnosed with Stage 3 testicular cancer and underwent an emergency orchiectomy the same day.
But when the words “you have cancer” landed, Pena’s first thought wasn’t fear for himself — it was his mother. “I thought, ‘This can’t be happening. My mom has cancer, and you’re telling me now I have cancer?’” he recalls. “It didn’t take long for me to realize we both needed to be there for each other. I called her right away.”
Like her son, Radjevic had initially also wanted to keep her concerns to herself. “I didn’t want to tell my kids. I wanted to work through it alone. But the people closest to me helped bring me around.”
When she told Pena the news, he reacted with a son’s instinct. “No one is really ready to hear that their mom has cancer,” he says. “Mom said, ‘No, don't come home. You’re going to get in trouble.’ But I said, ‘You let me worry about that. You're my mom. You have cancer. I'm coming home.’ Unbeknownst to either of us, I was already sick at the time. But no one knew.”
Navigating Through Uncertainties
Pena continued treatment after the orchiectomy. He completed chemotherapy in 2023; and in 2024, he successfully underwent follow-up surgery — the first of what would become several — at City of Hope, where his multidisciplinary care team includes Cory Hugen, M.D., a renowned urologic researcher and clinician who shares the bond of military service with Pena, having served as a urologist in the Air Force.
But the family had more cancer challenges to overcome. In the midst of Pena’s healing journey, Radjevic experienced a recurrence. She immediately knew City of Hope was where she needed to be. The Huntington Beach resident arrived at City of Hope Orange County Lennar Foundation Cancer Center and met with Nishan Tchekmedyian, M.D., a medical oncologist and hematologist, and the deputy physician-in-chief for City of Hope Orange County. Radjevic was encouraged by his expertise and moved by his approach. “Dr. Tchekmedyian looked at me and said there was hope for the future for me. He said, ‘We’re going to fight for you and we’re going to be here with you.’ It made all the difference,” Radjevic says. Radjevic’s team also includes renowned surgical oncologist Yuman Fong, M.D., interventional radiologist Jonathan Kessler, M.D., and additional specialists at City of Hope’s Orange County and Duarte campuses.
At times during her treatment, Radjevic was simply too weak to be there for her son, but this only motivated her to get better as soon as she could. As a person of faith, Radjevic strives to be strong and resilient.
A New Chapter of Hope
In 2026, Pena was one of the first surgical patients at City of Hope Orange County Cancer Specialty Hospital, the only cancer specialty hospital in the county. Several small tumors had developed on his lungs and were successfully removed by Binh Trinh, M.D., a thoracic surgeon specializing in minimally invasive approaches. “My mom was there at the hospital the entire time, and she has done so much to help me with recovery,” he says.
Today, Radjevic and Pena come to City of Hope regularly for monitoring but otherwise live normal lives with family responsibilities and work. Radjevic works as an EDI director and data analyst, and Pena has returned to active duty in San Diego.
As they continue their healing journeys, Pena and Radjevic appreciate the clear communication and personalized approach of their City of Hope teams.
“Care and compassion are the heart and soul of everyone at City of Hope,” says Pena. “They see and treat you as an individual. They take time to talk to you and get to know you. And they explain the treatments and processes in understandable terms, which I’m really thankful for,” he says. Radjevic says her medical teams have become like a second family, and she is grateful that she’s had the same doctors and specialists throughout her treatment. “At City of Hope, my team is my team. I get to see the same faces, and I know that they know who I am as a person. It’s a great way to feel when you are going through this journey.”
Also read:
Orange County's Only Cancer Specialty Hospital
City of Hope Orange County: World-Renowned Surgical Oncology, Closer to Home
Talking Hope: Urologic cancer: Keys to prevention, early detection and treatment
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