Cancer Cases Among 9/11 Survivors Rising

Cancer tied to the 9/11 attacks isn't fading into the past—it's ramping up, according to a Washington Post analysis. The newspaper found that about half of the roughly 54,000 survivors enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program—a federal program that funds health care for first responders and residents—are now receiving help for cancer, up from 35% just five years ago. A separate study from New York University found a similar spike in cancer cases since 2019 among 9/11 survivors.

"This is something that we are worried about," says NYU professor Alan Arslan, a study co-author. "We're seeing more and more patients." Researchers say the data isn't perfect because enrollment is voluntary, but the trends are hard to ignore: more breast and prostate cancers, earlier breast cancer diagnoses, aggressive tumors, and lung cancers in women who never smoked. Experts suspect the toxic dust—laced with asbestos, benzene, and other carcinogens—may be accelerating or triggering disease decades later, and warn cases could keep rising. Read the full story, which includes first-person accounts ahead of Friday's 25th anniversary.