scholarly journals Characteristics of Cancer Patients in the World Trade Center Environmental Health Center

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (19) ◽  
pp. 7190
Author(s):  
Nedim Durmus ◽  
Yongzhao Shao ◽  
Alan A. Arslan ◽  
Yian Zhang ◽  
Sultan Pehlivan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Health ◽  
Health Center ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
World Trade ◽  
World Trade Center ◽  
Cancer Site ◽  
Community Members ◽  
The World ◽  
Cancer Types ◽  
Trade Center

The destruction of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers on 11 September 2001 released many tons of aerosolized dust and smoke with potential for carcinogenic exposures to community members as well as responders. The WTC Environmental Health Center (WTC EHC) is a surveillance and treatment program for a diverse population of community members (“Survivors”), including local residents and workers, present in the NYC disaster area on 9/11 or in the days or weeks following. We report a case series of cancers identified in the WTC EHC as of 31 December 2019. Descriptive characteristics are presented for 2561 cancer patients (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) and 5377 non-cancer WTC-EHC participants who signed informed consent. We identified a total of 2999 cancer diagnoses in 2561 patients: 2534 solid tumors (84.5%) and 465 lymphoid and hematopoietic tissue cancers (15.5%) with forty-one different cancer types. We describe the distribution, frequency, median age of cancer diagnosis and median latency from 9/11 by cancer site. In addition to common cancer types, rare cancers, including male breast cancers and mesotheliomas have been identified. The current study is the first report on cancer characteristics of enrollees at WTC EHC, a federally designated treatment and surveillance program for local community members affected by the 9/11 terrorist attack on the WTC.

scholarly journals Lung Cancer Characteristics in the World Trade Center Environmental Health Center

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 2689
Author(s):  
Nedim Durmus ◽  
Sultan Pehlivan ◽  
Yian Zhang ◽  
Yongzhao Shao ◽  
Alan A. Arslan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lung Cancer ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Health Center ◽  
World Trade ◽  
World Trade Center ◽  
Smoking History ◽  
Community Members ◽  
The World ◽  
Trade Center ◽  
Never Smokers

The destruction of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers on 11 September 2001 resulted in acute and chronic dust and fume exposures to community members, including local workers and residents, with well-described aerodigestive adverse health effects. This study aimed to characterize lung cancer in the WTC Environmental Health Center (WTC EHC) focusing on gender and smoking history. WTC EHC patients undergo an initial evaluation that includes WTC exposure information, demographics, and tobacco use. Detailed cancer characteristics are recorded from pathology reports. As of 31 December 2019, 248 WTC EHC patients had a diagnosis of lung cancer. More patients with lung cancer were women (57%) compared to men (43%). Many cases (47% women, 51% men) reported acute dust cloud exposure. Thirty-seven percent of lung cancer cases with available smoking history were never-smokers (≤1 pack-years) and 42% had a ≤5 pack-year history. The median age of cancer diagnosis in never-smoking women was 61 years compared to 66 years in men. Adenocarcinoma was more common in never-smokers compared to ever-smokers (72% vs. 65%) and in women compared to men (70% vs. 65%). We provide an initial description of lung cancers in local community members with documented exposure to the WTC dust and fumes.

scholarly journals Destruction of the World Trade Center Towers. Lessons Learned from an Environmental Health Disaster

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 577-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Reibman ◽  
Nomi Levy-Carrick ◽  
Terry Miles ◽  
Kimberly Flynn ◽  
Catherine Hughes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Health ◽  
World Trade ◽  
World Trade Center ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
The World ◽  
Trade Center ◽  
World Trade Center Towers

scholarly journals Longitudinal Change of PTSD Symptoms in Community Members after the World Trade Center Destruction

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. 1215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Rosen ◽  
Zhaoyin Zhu ◽  
Yongzhao Shao ◽  
Mengling Liu ◽  
Jia Bao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
World Trade ◽  
World Trade Center ◽  
Physical Symptoms ◽  
Symptom Clusters ◽  
Longitudinal Change ◽  
Ptsd Symptoms ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The World ◽  
Trade Center

The World Trade Center (WTC) Environmental Health Center (EHC) is a treatment program for community members with exposure to the 9/11 terrorist attack and its physical and emotional aftermath. Compared to the general responders program, the WTC EHC is diverse with equal gender distribution, representation of many races and ethnicities, and a wide range of social economic status. Patients in the WTC EHC were initially enrolled for physical symptoms, most of which were respiratory, however a large portion of the enrollees scored positive for probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this paper we identify patient characteristics associated with probable PTSD. We also determine the characteristics associated with the longitudinal change of PTSD symptoms, including persistence and remittance, using the widely used Posttraumatic Check List-17 (PCL) cut-off value of 44, as well as changes in PCL total score and symptom cluster scores in patients of Low and High PTSD symptom severity. Few patients with elevated scores achieved a score below 44. However, longitudinal improvement in PCL score at follow-up was identified for patients with High PTSD scores (PCL > 57.5). Changes in PCL symptom clusters differed between those with High and Low PCL scores. These data suggest improvement over time in PCL score that differs depending on the severity of the score and variable responses in the PCL symptom clusters.

scholarly journals Paresthesias Among Community Members Exposed to the World Trade Center Disaster

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Marmor ◽  
Yongzhao Shao ◽  
D. Harshad Bhatt ◽  
Mark M. Stecker ◽  
Kenneth I. Berger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
World Trade ◽  
World Trade Center ◽  
Community Members ◽  
World Trade Center Disaster ◽  
The World ◽  
Trade Center

scholarly journals Breast Cancer Characteristics in the Population of Survivors Participating in the World Trade Center Environmental Health Center Program 2002–2019

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (14) ◽  
pp. 7555
Author(s):  
Alan A. Arslan ◽  
Yian Zhang ◽  
Nedim Durmus ◽  
Sultan Pehlivan ◽  
Adrienne Addessi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Health Center ◽  
World Trade ◽  
World Trade Center ◽  
Complex Mixture ◽  
Breast Cancers ◽  
Cancer Data ◽  
Female Breast ◽  
Trade Center

The destruction of World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 exposed local community members to a complex mixture of known carcinogens and potentially carcinogenic substances. To date, breast cancer has not been characterized in detail in the WTC-exposed civilian populations. The cancer characteristics of breast cancer patients were derived from the newly developed Pan-Cancer Database at the WTC Environmental Health Center (WTC EHC). We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program breast cancer data as a reference source. Between May 2002 and 31 December 2019, 2840 persons were diagnosed with any type of cancer at the WTC EHC, including 601 patients with a primary breast cancer diagnosis (592 women and 9 men). There was a higher proportion of grade 3 (poorly differentiated) tumors (34%) among the WTC EHC female breast cancers compared to that of the SEER-18 data (25%). Compared to that of the SEER data, female breast cancers in the WTC EHC had a lower proportion of luminal A (88% and 65%, respectively), higher proportion of luminal B (13% and 15%, respectively), and HER-2-enriched (5.5% and 7%, respectively) subtypes. These findings suggest considerable differences in the breast cancer characteristics and distribution of breast cancer intrinsic subtypes in the WTC-exposed civilian population compared to that of the general population. This is important because of the known effect of molecular subtypes on breast cancer prognosis.

scholarly journals Genome-Wide DNA Methylation Profiles in Community Members Exposed to the World Trade Center Disaster

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (15) ◽  
pp. 5493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan A. Arslan ◽  
Stephanie Tuminello ◽  
Lei Yang ◽  
Yian Zhang ◽  
Nedim Durmus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Methylation ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Local Community ◽  
World Trade Center ◽  
Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Blood Samples ◽  
The World ◽  
Trade Center ◽  
Free Women

The primary goal of this pilot study was to assess feasibility of studies among local community members to address the hypothesis that complex exposures to the World Trade Center (WTC) dust and fumes resulted in long-term epigenetic changes. We enrolled 18 WTC-exposed cancer-free women from the WTC Environmental Health Center (WTC EHC) who agreed to donate blood samples during their standard clinical visits. As a reference WTC unexposed group, we randomly selected 24 age-matched cancer-free women from an existing prospective cohort who donated blood samples before 11 September 2001. The global DNA methylation analyses were performed using Illumina Infinium MethylationEpic arrays. Statistical analyses were performed using R Bioconductor package. Functional genomic analyses were done by mapping the top 5000 differentially expressed CpG sites to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) Pathway database. Among cancer-free subjects, we observed substantial methylation differences between WTC-exposed and unexposed women. The top 15 differentially methylated gene probes included BCAS2, OSGIN1, BMI1, EEF1A2, SPTBN5, CHD8, CDCA7L, AIDA, DDN, SNORD45C, ZFAND6, ARHGEF7, UBXN8, USF1, and USP12. Several cancer-related pathways were enriched in the WTC-exposed subjects, including endocytosis, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), viral carcinogenesis, as well as Ras-associated protein-1 (Rap1) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling. The study provides preliminary data on substantial differences in DNA methylation between WTC-exposed and unexposed populations that require validation in further studies.

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