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In Memory of Brittney S. Moniz
Brittney (Miilu) Moniz was born April 9, 1991, in Wausau, Minnesota. During high school, she played softball, ran track and field, curled and was a football manager. She graduated from University of Minnesota Duluth with a Biochemistry degree where she met her husband, Zachary Moniz.
On June 6th, 2020, Brittney and Zach were married.
Brittney enjoyed being outdoors every chance possible, between long walks, boat days, yearly trips to Leech Lake, and ice fishing at lakes across Minnesota and Wisconsin. You could always catch her enjoying God’s creations.
Brittney also loved cheering on her Green Bay Packers even having so many Minnesota Viking friends! But her greatest joy in life were her two children, Hank and Camryn.
In late 2024, Brittney was pumping for our second born Camryn. We believed she had a clog or mastitis, so she tried to pump it out, but nothing came out. In the moment, it seemed normal. But looking back, it was the beginning of the tumor.
While on an annual fishing trip to Red Lake, Brittney felt tingling in her armpit, which became painful shortly after. She scheduled an appointment with her OB on January 27th and the doctor felt a mass. On January 31st, Brittney had a mammogram and ultrasound, and a few days later, a biopsy confirmed the mass was cancer. An MRI and PET scan showed that the cancer had spread into 12 lymph nodes, and possibly into her sacrum. We were referred to Mayo Rochester and after a whirlwind of appointments, Brittney was diagnosed with Stage 3C Triple Negative Inflammatory breast cancer. We knew she was in for a big fight.
Mayo acted quickly and Brittney started treatment with the Keynote 522 regimen (chemotherapy and Keytruda for immunotherapy) on February 17th. We saw amazing results – the tumor basically melted away. One month after finishing treatment, on July 31st, Brittney had a total mastectomy of her left breast and sentinel node dissection, and they found no signs of cancer. She had a break for a few weeks until radiation began September 8th. We were able to squeeze in our annual Labor Day trip to Leech Lake with our kids and close friends. It was a much-needed recharge from the grind of treatments.
When we returned, Brittney received 12 rounds of proton radiation to the left breast and 4 rounds of photon radiation to her sacrum area, just to be safe. During her last week of radiation, a headache started and persisted. A brain MRI found tumors too numerous to count. Once we found this out, we took a family trip to Lutsen on the North shore of Lake Superior to enjoy the fall colors. Brittney then had 10 rounds of whole brain radiation and started Enhertu, which we were told had some success crossing the blood-brain barrier. That chemo unfortunately tanked Brittney’s blood counts and she was in and out of the hospital with a temperature and unknown infections. She had to skip several rounds of treatment due to being unwell. A PET scan on December 1st showed her body clear of cancer, but we still didn’t know how the brain and spinal fluid looked.
On January 7th, Brittney went into Mayo for appointments and began experiencing leg weakness and numbness. We were sent to the ER where they performed a spinal MRI. It showed significant LMD progression in her lower spine that was pushing on the cauda equina nerves, the nerves that control sensation and movement in the lower body, bladder and bowel. At that point, we began searching for options outside of the standard of care.
Starting a Clinical Trial at Moffitt Cancer Center
We did a lot of research and found the dendritic cell vaccine trial at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. On February 12th, we met with Dr. Forsyth and the neuro team. We have never experienced such an amazing group of people that worked so hard to get us enrolled on the trial. We went back to Minnesota where Brittney was scheduled for surgery to place an Ommaya reservoir; however, the neuro-oncologist at Mayo said she did not want to help us since we weren’t getting treatment there. We contacted Moffitt to see if they could help and Dr. Tran called us back at 8:30 PM that same night to schedule the surgery. What an amazing person and physician he is! The next Sunday, we flew to Tampa and Brittney had surgery on Monday.
We went home to Minnesota and then flew back to Florida on March 16th to do apheresis, which is when they harvest the dendritic cells from the blood to make the vaccine. During some checks, Britt’s CSF pressure was elevated so they added a shunt to the Ommaya port. Britt got her last dose of Enhertu at Mayo on March 25th and her breast oncologist Dr. Idossa came by to sit with her. She was such an amazing person to work with at Mayo!
After days of scans and office visits, Britt received the first dose of the vaccine on her 35th birthday, April 9th, an amazing gift… hope. We continued the trial, but between weeks 3 and 4, her symptoms began to get worse. Double vision increased, walking became very unstable, and she had to get a catheter placed to help empty her bladder. We both still had so much hope that the symptoms were due to the treatment working.
On week 4, we arrived at Moffitt and Brittney began to get a very bad headache. She then became incoherent and very confused. They ended up sedating her so they could check the fluid pressure, which was elevated again. They opened the shunt to relieve pressure and removed a large amount of CSF. She slowly became more alert over 3 days and began to talk and joke again. She was really hoping to go home that next weekend and recover.
On Sunday May 2nd, her speech got worse and slurred, and that afternoon she rarely woke up. They did a brain CT and MRI and found she had over 100 mini strokes within her brain due to the tumors progressing rapidly in the CSF. She fought hard and made it to Mother’s Day, where we all spent the day in the hospital room together. On May 13th, Brittney passed away peacefully in her sleep. She donated her brain and spinal cord to research at Moffitt cancer center so her legacy can live on and hopefully bring a treatment to this terrible disease. The team at Moffitt was one of the most caring, thoughtful, and amazing things we have experienced in our life and we are beyond thankful.
Brittney leaves behind her husband, Zachary, her beautiful children, Hank 4 and Camryn 2, her mother, Kathy Miilu, her brother, Brandon Miilu, Goddaughter Leighton Warner, Godson Benjamin Banks, and many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.
Brittney was preceded in death by her father Thomas Miilu, brother Kyle Miilu, grandparents Helen and Joseph Quednow and Mildred and Walter Miilu, and uncles Gene Ostrowski, Dale Quednow, and David Jones.