Cancer Cluster?

rozem

I just found out that another neighbor (moved away 3 years ago) from my street was just diagnosed with BC. Thats 4 women diagnosed in the last 8 years (including myself) - all 4 with aggressive breast cancers (her2 and triple negative). One moved away approximately 9 years ago and was just diagnosed last year (can her2 take that long to show up???) I counted and there are only 17 women on our street - 4/17 is double the stats of 1 in 8

I did check with the city and we aren't on an old dump or anything like that - is this just chance? something environmental that we don't know about? its really playing on my mind and i'm ready to put the for sale sign up!

gb2115

There were a bunch of us (6, but we're not a big location) at my previous work site. I looked up whether to call the health department, and saw that they don't do much if it's a typical cancer for the gender/age. I found that disappointing. I am convinced that building gave me cancer.

SpecialK

I was a downwinder of this event, and lived there from 1959-1975, when I left the area for college.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Susana_Field_Laboratory

On my cul de sac of 10 houses, my dad and brother were diagnosed with stage IV de novo cancers of differing kinds, my mom was diagnosed with a rare degenerative neuromuscular disease, I was diagnosed with breast cancer 18 months after my brother died. Additionally, there were cases of leukemia, liver cancer, stomach cancer, and melanoma in the other families. These are the cancers I knew about, other families moved away so there could be definitely be more. I have been to all of my high school reunions (on the 10 year schedule) and my classmates were dying of cancer from the first one on. It's sad and scary, with no real concrete answers, but sobering stats.

AliceBastable

Rozem, if everyone had been diagnosed in the same year, that would be shockingly off from statistics. But over a decade, probably not.

readytorock

In my hometown, there is a group of at least 10 of us born within about 8 years of each other (from about 1968 - 1976) that have all had breast cancer and I think 4 have died (from about age 39 to about age 45). These are just women that I am aware of. It is a small town, about 1,000, but I'd be interested for an analysis. I think most, if not all, of us had fathers that were Viet Nam Vets.

rozem

thank you for everyone's input...I find this very intriguing and somewhat disturbing. I guess the biggest factor that has me thinking is all of us have been diagnosed with breast cancer - not other cancers - 3 within the last 4-5 years, all aggressive subtypes. I was the first (lucky me). it is definitely statistically higher than the general population of 1 in 8. Also, from my understanding aggressive cancers are more likely in younger women but these were all post menopausal (except for myself) - food for thought. There is so much we don't know about this disease!!

rozem

Special K - wow that is a sobering read....so sad what humankind is doing to our earth