Mysterious cancer cluster among Roanoke College alumni prompts investigation

A mysterious wave of cancer among young alumni of a Virginia university has prompted an investigation.

More than a dozen alumni who graduated from Roanoke College in Salem between 2011 and 2019 have been diagnosed with cancer, a study by Airmail.

On May 13, Ida Peterson Hardon became the fifth Roanoke alumnus to die from cancer in the past three years — and one of at least 16 diagnosed since 2010.

The small liberal arts school has fewer than 2,000 students in total.

That makes the cancer rate among the alumni pool five times higher than that of 20- to 29-year-olds in the country. It also makes the death rate 15 times higher.

According to Air Mail reporting, there is a 1.5 in 100 million chance that this cancer rate would occur naturally. While cancer is increasing among young Americans overall, the analysis took into account the national increase.

“There is a strange anomaly in the incidence of cancer among Roanoke students,” said Boris Reva, associate professor in the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at Mount Sinai.

Following the article’s publication, the school assured students that it was safe, but added that it would work with an environmental services provider to investigate the claims with an abundance of caution.

Peterson died after a years-long battle with acute myeloid leukemia, a form of cancer that usually occurs in people in their 70s.

Before she passed away, she wrote, “I fought so hard but nothing worked and unfortunately I am out of options… 33 years young, going to hospice care…. Thank you all for your friendship – see you on the other side.”

Chloe Svolos Baldwin, from the class of 2015, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2019.

By then, she had already watched her former classmate Kalee Perry and Kelsey Palmer of the class of 2016 battle non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Wilms tumor, a rare childhood cancer.

“At first we thought, this must be a coincidence,” Baldwin told AirMail.

But then she started to think there was “something going on here… it was just weird that three girls from Roanoke, all a year apart, were diagnosed.”

Several professors, including Sandee McGlaun, have also been diagnosed with cancer in recent years; she died of breast cancer in 2021.

She was the second English teacher in a department of about 15 people to be diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer—which accounts for only 10 to 15 percent of all breast cancer cases.

After learning of additional cancer diagnoses among alumni, Baldwin contacted the Virginia Department of Health in 2021 to request a cancer cluster study, but her request was denied.

The VDH said the cases would not qualify as a cancer cluster because they did not have cancer at the same time.

Since then, Baldwin, now in remission, has embarked on a mission to raise the alarm about what she believes is a worrying situation.

“We were all healthy 20-somethings who were all diagnosed with cancer,” she said in a viral TikTok video last year.

“What about all these other kids who are at this college and might be exposed? Doesn’t anyone care? It interests me.’

Roanoke’s vice president of marketing and communications, Rita Farlow, told AirMail: ‘The VDH, the official investigating agency in such cases, has communicated to Roanoke College that there is no evidence of concern about increased cancer rates or a cancer cluster in our college community. ‘

Farlow denied the existence of any environmental problem affecting the school, but said Roanoke is aware of a mold problem.

However, she added that “tests never found toxic mold and never revealed an amount of mold spores indoors that exceeded the amount detected in the air outside the building.”

In a statement to students, the school said: “After many conversations with public health professionals, epidemiologists and physicians about the incidence of cancer, we have absolutely no evidence to show that Roanoke College is anything but a safe place to live, work and to live. to learn.

‘We also believe that the evidence suggests that the incidence of cancer among our graduates is no greater than in the general population.

“However, since the article’s reporter insinuates a causal relationship between Roanoke College and cancer, I can see how that might make you ask the question, “Is Roanoke College safe?”

“The health and safety of all who call Roanoke College home has always been this community’s top priority; it remains so today. Still, I recognize that an article like this creates the kind of fear and anxiety that deserves a more concrete evaluation.

“It is for this reason, and out of an abundance of caution, that Roanoke College has contracted with an independent, national and esteemed environmental services company that will help us approach this topic in a data-based and scientific manner.

“The company will begin work soon, which may include working with an independent epidemiologist and scientists from the Virginia Department of Health to gather additional information. Our consultants are experts in their field and will help us determine our next steps.”