A wealthy California enclave blighted by a cluster of extremely rare childhood cancers is now grappling with a second uncommon diagnosis.
Jessica Keetch, from Orange County, revealed her daughter Haven, 18, lost her leg after battling synovial sarcoma, an aggressive soft tissue cancer that often appears as a lump on the leg.
The disease is extremely rare in the United States, impacting less than 1,000 people across the country every year.
It comes as the number of children affected by another rare type of cancer, called Ewing sarcoma, has risen to a dozen in Ladera Ranch.
Furious families have demanded officials investigate whether environmental factors, including pesticide use, could be contributing to the illnesses — despite authorities saying no link has been established.
Jessica Keetch, from Orange County, revealed her daughter Haven (pictured), 18, lost her leg after battling synovial sarcoma, an aggressive soft tissue cancer that often appears as a lump on the leg. Facebook/@haven.keetch
The disease is extremely rare in the United States, impacting less than 1,000 people across the country every year. Pictured: Haven wearing her prosthetic leg. Instagram/@havenkeetch
Jessica told NBC4: “I think people need to listen and wake up and realize something is happening to our children. This is not random.”
She added: “I’ll always remember the day. I’ll cry thinking about it because it’s the worst day for a parent you can ever have.”
Haven’s case follows mounting concern over several cases of Ewing sarcoma, an exceptionally rare bone and soft tissue cancer that affects only about 200 to 240 children and teenagers nationwide each year.
Earlier this week, Bond Legal announced it had launched an investigation into the cases, saying it is seeking information from families whose children lived in or regularly visited the community.
“The concentration of cases in a single community is deeply troubling, especially to those who live there,” said Candice Bond, managing partner of Bond Legal.
Jessica told NBC4: “I think people need to listen and wake up and realize something is happening to our children. This is not random.” NBC
The law firm emphasized multiple cancer diagnoses alone do not prove any environmental exposure caused the illnesses and said any legal claims would require reliable scientific, medical and factual evidence.
According to the Orange County Health Care Agency, officials have begun reviewing updated cancer data following months of concerns raised by residents.
“Several representatives from the California Cancer Registry, the UCI Cancer Center, and the Orange County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office met after the County Health Officer initiated outreach in response to ongoing community concerns earlier this year,” the agency previously said.
“The group agreed to conduct an updated review of cancer data. Findings from this analysis will be shared in upcoming weeks with the County Health Officer as soon as they are available,” it added.
The California Department of Public Health has cautioned that an apparent increase in cases within a small geographic area does not necessarily mean a true cancer cluster exists or that the illnesses share a common cause.
The department says its California Cancer Registry evaluates suspected clusters by comparing the number of diagnosed cases in a community against what would normally be expected based on statewide cancer rates, age groups and population size.
For parents like Megan Matteson, whose son Brody died in March after battling Ewing sarcoma and treatment-related leukemia, the growing number of diagnoses has only intensified fears. Obtained by the CA Post
Residents have increasingly questioned whether widespread herbicide and pesticide applications throughout the roughly 4,000-acre community could be playing a role, though public health officials have not identified any environmental cause or linked landscaping practices to the reported illnesses.
While there is no official evidence establishing a cause-and-effect relationship, some researchers believe reducing exposure to potentially toxic chemicals is a prudent precaution.
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“Unless there’s a compelling reason to continue to use toxic chemicals, it makes a lot of sense to not use them,” Dr. Bruce Blumberg, a professor of developmental and cell biology at the University of California, Irvine, told NBC Los Angeles.
“It’s not as if we are talking about malaria. We are talking about weeds, for the most part, and I don’t know why we should be so willing to use toxic chemicals to eliminate weeds when they can be pulled up or gotten rid of in a non-toxic way,” he added.
Blumberg has also previously said communities should minimize pesticide use whenever practical, although researchers have not established a direct causal relationship between pesticide exposure and the cancers reported in Ladera Ranch.
“To have three families that just contacted me right away after Brody was diagnosed was helpful but scary at the same time,” Matteson said. NBC
For parents like Megan Matteson, whose son Brody died in March after battling Ewing sarcoma and treatment-related leukemia, the growing number of diagnoses has only intensified fears.
“To have three families that just contacted me right away after Brody was diagnosed was helpful but scary at the same time,” Matteson said.
Keetch said residents are urging the Ladera Ranch Maintenance Corporation to adopt safer landscaping alternatives while officials continue investigating.
“These are our children. These are our babies,” she said. “I raised my children in Ladera, thinking it’s safe. Maybe there’s no safe community, but if we can do better, we need to do better.”
The Ladera Ranch Maintenance Corporation has said it is creating an advisory committee made up of homeowners, board members, staff and landscaping professionals to review its landscaping practices and recommend improvements.
The organization has also said it understands residents’ concerns but is “not aware of any determination by those agencies identifying a specific environmental cause or linking the Association’s landscape management practices to these illnesses.”