Before I enrolled in one of MD Anderson’s triple-negative breast cancer clinical trial in November 2016, I was in a dark place. I’d been re-diagnosed with breast cancer one year earlier, and doctors back home in South Carolina couldn’t get it under control. By the time I made it down to MD Anderson for a second opinion, my disease had spread to five areas of my body: shoulder, buttock, liver, lungs and rib.

Though I’m still undergoing...