9/11 Related Cancer Cases Have Surged 1,680% Since 2015 as 25th Anniversary Approaches

The number of Americans certified with cancer tied to the September 11, 2001 attacks has exploded 1,680% over the past decade, according to statistics compiled by the World Trade Center Health Program. Certifications climbed from 3,204 in 2015 to 57,044 today, figures obtained and reported by the New York Post.

For the first time, cancer cases among people who lived, worked or attended school near Ground Zero have surpassed cases among emergency responders. Survivors account for 28,913 of the total cases, a 4,066% increase from the 694 cases reported in 2015. Firefighters, police officers and other responders with prolonged exposure make up 28,131 cases.

"Sadly, we lose roughly two clients a day and see a new cancer certification every 50 minutes," said Michael Barasch, an attorney whose firm represents thousands of people enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program. Barasch has spent two decades on 9/11-related litigation and health advocacy.

Program data through June show that 67% of the 145,275 current members of the World Trade Center Health Program are certified for at least one of 69 cancers linked to 9/11 toxins. This compares to roughly 40% cancer rate among Americans overall, according to the same figures.

More than 9,425 people have died from post-9/11-related illnesses, more than triple the 2,977 people killed in the attacks themselves.

Rare cancers on the rise

Medical monitors are tracking a growing number of unusual malignancies. There are 82 documented cases of thymus gland cancer, a tumor type that represents fewer than 1% of all cancer cases nationally. There are 591 cases of neuroendocrine cancers, up 6% between March and June alone. Cases of male breast cancer have reached 188. Brain cancer cases hit 163, a 9% jump in the most recent quarter.

Leslie Lane, 76, worked at the World Financial Center for Merrill Lynch, directly across from the Twin Towers, and was in her office when the planes hit. "You could taste the dust. You could taste the fuel, greasy gas," she said, describing the evacuation. Lane was diagnosed with thymus cancer during a 2020 checkup and had successful surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

James Ryan, 65, an electrician who worked at the PATH train's World Trade Center station and the excavation ramp, was diagnosed with early-stage pancreatic cancer after a routine checkup found blood in his urine. Part of his pancreas was removed in 2019.

Beyond physical illness, researchers are also studying trauma's toll on the brain. A study published in Translational Psychiatry, led by Florida International University researcher Dr. Roberto Lucchini, analyzed MRI scans from 99 World Trade Center responders and found those with chronic PTSD showed signs of accelerated brain aging, with brains appearing roughly three years older than their chronological age.

Mount Sinai Health System and federal officials are preparing to examine these long-term health impacts at a virtual conference ahead of the anniversary.

The role of age and toxic exposure

The cancer statistics acknowledge the increase is "attributed partly to the advancing age" of responders and survivors, most of whom are now in their late 50s, 60s or 70s. Age alone does not explain the gap, however. The 67% certification rate among World Trade Center Health Program members is nearly double the roughly 40% national cancer rate for Americans overall, a comparison drawn from the same dataset. Age is rising everywhere in America; a rate that outpaces the national average by that margin points to something beyond the calendar.

Fading from memory as the toll keeps rising

The health numbers are climbing even as, for many younger Americans, September 11 recedes into distant history rather than lived memory. In a personal essay for Fox News, a millennial writer who was 9 years old and 25 miles from Lower Manhattan on the day of the attacks argued that his generation is now the last to carry firsthand memory of that morning, and warned that for younger Americans the day risks becoming "just a chapter in a textbook or worse, fodder for internet conspiracy theories, memes and jokes."

The three official memorial sites, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York, the Pentagon Memorial, and the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, remain the primary public record of the day. What remains less visible to most Americans is the ongoing death toll documented by the World Trade Center Health Program, a toll that, per Barasch, adds a new certified cancer case roughly every 50 minutes. Whether Congress sustains funding for that program at current levels as caseloads keep climbing is a question that will outlast this year's anniversary.