by Shari Rudavsky, The Indianapolis Star, 23 October 2015
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana State Department of Health is asking the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for help investigating a potential cluster of brain cancer cases.
State health officials started looking into concerns this summer that an unusually high number of people living in the same neighborhood in Henry County east of Indianapolis had been diagnosed with a type of brain cancer, known as glioblastoma, over the past 23 months.
“We are listening closely to people’s concerns and methodically investigating these cases,” said State Health Commissioner Jerome Adams in a statement released Friday.
Two people living close to each other and a third who lived about a mile away all developed the rare brain cancer, said Dr. Joan Duwve, chief medical officer, in an interview.
A family member contacted the state, concerned that something environmental might lurk behind this rash of cases. It is not uncommon for the state to investigate such concerns, but of the 28 potential cancer clusters that the state has looked into since 2011, none has been confirmed.
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