NDCA

More diagnoses spur Monday night Q&A on brain cancer

By CHRISTINE S. DIAMOND
The Lufkin Daily News

Sunday, November 18, 2007

After another child has been diagnosed with brain cancer in the county’s southern end, Zavalla city leaders have decided to host a special Q&A on the topic during their 7 p.m. city council meeting tonight.

“Parents are panicked,” said City Secretary Donna Marshall. “They are scared.”

Neither the city council nor school superintendent want to cause a public scare, they say, so much as to address growing concerns about city water possibly causing cancer or tumors in school children. However, no medical doctor has been asked to attend or respond to concerns at this point, said Marshall.

Dr. Sid Roberts, director of the Arthur Temple Sr. Regional Cancer Center, said he has no firsthand knowledge of the issue but has found that determining whether a perceived cancer cluster is actually statistically significant is, in general, very difficult.

“Ten to 15 years ago, we looked briefly at a few brain tumor cases in Diboll, I believe, and determined that there was actually no higher incidence than would be expected in that population,” he said. “Statistics in small towns are sometimes misleading as well. Once you start applying rare tumor statistics to small populations, you can really get into trouble. Even one or two cases can skew the numbers.”

The latest diagnoses of a first-grader with brain cancer has left many parents asking what could be to blame, she said.

“Of course the first thing that every one assumes is that it is caused by the water,” she said, adding that students have begun carrying bottled water to school. “Like any other public water supply, our water is tested monthly, annually and more in-depth tests are run every two to three years. We really don’t think it is the water.”

The city is taking their concerns seriously and responding pro-actively with plans to test the well where Zavalla school water is drawn later this month, said Zavalla Superintendent Kathy Ray. The test will determine the presence of organic volatile compounds, synthetic volatile compounds and radio-chemical compounds, Ray said.

“We felt we needed to address those concerns,” Marshall said.

In addition to testing the well, Zavalla city council members felt it would be a good idea to hold a Q&A on the issue, Marshall said.

“Last year we lost a 9-year-old to brain cancer and recently another second-grader was diagnosed with leukemia,” she said, adding that there have been other cases of cancer and tumors occurring in children in recent history.

“Zavalla is a small close-knit community; when one family suffers, we all do. We feel their pain and want to do whatever we can to insure that it doesn’t happen to another family. We may not ever find the reason for the children’s illnesses, but for sure we need to do whatever we can to rule out any environmental cause,” she said.

The desire to pinpoint the cause, is natural — especially when coping with bad things happening to good people, Roberts said.

There are dozens of different types of brain tumors in children whose causes still elude the medical community, he said.

“Most cancers just happen, and that isn’t a very satisfying answer,” he said. “Perceived clusters should be investigated — if for no other reason than to reassure the public and the families.”

As a first step, Roberts suggests submitting an inquiry to the Texas Cancer Registry for an investigation into potential clusters.

“That gets an independent third party involved,” he said. “It is much too soon to contemplate community action, water testing, or laying blame for what is certainly a tragedy for very real families. Get the Texas Cancer Registry to look into the numbers first to help determine if a problem really exists.”

The Texas Department of State Health Services investigated four potential cancer clusters in Angelina County between Oct. 1, 2003 and Sept. 30, 2007 — two of the cases involved Zavalla patients, according to the Texas Cancer Registry Web site. One of these examined childhood brain/central nervous system cancer subtypes and others occurring between 1995-2004 was completed in April 2007. According to the summary report, the rate of these cancers were within the expected range.

“The vast majority of brain cancers happen for no apparent reason and are not associated with anything which the child or parent did or didn’t do, or anything that child was exposed to in the environment,” the report states. “The only established risk factors for brain cancer are ionizing radiation and family history.”

According to the epidemiology study, three males and zero females were recorded as having brain cancer or central nervous system cancer in the Zavalla area between 1995-2004 compared to an expected occurrence of 1.5 cases.

The other investigation examined breast, prostate, lung, colorectal, bladder, corpus/uterus, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cases occurring between 1995-2003. The results of this study indicated that the occurrence of lung and bronchus cancer were higher in Zavalla area men, but because it could not be determined whether smoking was a nonfactor, further investigation of a cluster was unnecessary.

Summary case report numbers may be found athttp://www.dshs.state.tx.us/tcr/clusters.shtm, and calling 1-800-252-8059. The Cancer Registry will e-mail specific case summaries to requestors.

Zavalla City Hall is located at 838 E. Main St. in Zavalla.

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