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Help us care for more children like Miles

Our whole family was together when we got the news: Miles, our precious baby boy, had cancer. While thankful for the support of our family, it didn’t stop us from sobbing uncontrollably and wondering how this could have happened to our son, our family.
- Molly and Michael, parents of Miles

Miles Brown was born with a tiny bump on his back. His parents, Molly and Mike, didn’t worry much about it. After all, Molly’s father had harmless fatty cysts on his back, so the Browns weren’t concerned. Neither were Miles's doctors.

“We were just so excited about having a baby boy, that’s all we could think about at the time,” Molly says.

As the months went by, the bump continued to grow as Miles grew. His parents' concern also grew. “We decided that it was time to do something,” Molly says.

At his six month check up, Molly pushed the issue with her son’s pediatrician. Miles had an X-ray, which showed scoliosis, a curved spine, but no other problems. The Browns believed – at that point – that their son would wear a back brace to correct the spine. Not an ideal situation, but manageable. Just to be thorough, Miles’s pediatrician scheduled an MRI.

A Life-Changing Diagnosis

On April 25, 2006, Miles had the MRI at Cincinnati Children’s. Miles did, in fact, have scoliosis, but that wasn’t all. The scoliosis was caused by a cancerous tumor that had grown through the vertebrae. Miles had neuroblastoma, a solid tumor cancer that begins in the nervous system. It most often strikes children under age 5.

Molly, Michael and Miles' grandparents and aunt were all together at the hospital while Miles was getting the MRI. They had a bad feeling when the hour-long procedure stretched to nearly three hours.

The Browns say they’ll never forget the moment the doctors told them that Miles had cancer. “Thank goodness, our whole family was together. I was a basket case. We were all just sobbing. We couldn’t stop sobbing,” Molly remembers. “All I wanted to do was just hold my child.”

As horrible as the situation was, the Browns say they were grateful for the genuine concern of the doctors, nurses and other caregivers at Cincinnati Children’s.

“By the time the MRI results were complete, it was 10:30 pm. The doctors had already gone home, but they came back to the hospital to meet with us. They didn’t have to do that – they could have asked us to come back the next day. But they didn’t. It was just phenomenal,” Molly says.

Miles was immediately admitted to Cincinnati Children’s and spent three days undergoing numerous tests. He had six rounds of chemotherapy between May and September 2006. At that time, his prognosis was good. There was 20 percent of the tumor left in Miles’s back, but it was not growing.

Miles visited Cincinnati Children’s every three months after that for scans to have the tumor checked. These visits were very difficult on Miles and his parents as waking from anesthesia left him very unhappy. “He was usually screaming and crying and he didn’t really like anyone very much,” Molly says.

And yet, when they try to leave to go home, Miles doesn’t want to go. “He loves the child life specialists who bring him toys and try to make him feel happier when he’s at Cincinnati Children’s. They’re really good to him,” Molly says. “He holds the doors and says he doesn’t want to leave.”

Time for Surgery

Things seemed to be going well. Then, on October 10, 2007, Molly got a call at work. The tumor was growing again and Miles needed to have it surgically removed this time.

“I was a hysterical mess. Again, the whole family went to Cincinnati Children’s and, again, we were all sobbing,” Molly says. “This time, though, the nurses and doctors were sobbing with us. We had all become so close. Miles isn’t just a patient to them, he’s a person. They all care so much.”

On November 2, 2007, Miles had surgery to remove the cancerous tumor from his little body. The surgery took two surgeons and almost nine hours to complete. At only 2 years old, Miles had two rods and eight screws in his spine.

For children under age 2 and those with a single mass of tumor, like Miles, the combination of surgery and chemotherapy offers a 90 to 95 percent cure rate. But in older children and those whose cancer has spread, the tumor cells are often able to survive ordinary doses of chemotherapy and radiation, leading to relapses that are difficult to cure.

The cancer program within the Cincinnati Children's Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute is a referral center for neuroblastoma patients from around the country, offering expertise in clinical care and research. Over the last 30 years, Cincinnati Children's has been the leader in developing new treatments and drug protocols that have improved outcomes for high-risk neuroblastoma.

Miles Today

Today, Miles is a happy, healthy 3-year-old who loves to read books and play in the dirt with his trucks, bulldozers and cars.

“After all he’s been through, you’d think Miles would hate to come to Cincinnati Children's. But he gets so excited when we pull into the parking garage. He just loves the people here – and so do we," Molly says.