ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) — From her backyard in Port St. Lucie, Laura Cooper can point across a canal to another family touched by the same devastating disease.
“You can see my backyard, and this little boy’s backyard across the canal — he got it. He got the glioblastoma,” Cooper said.
For Cooper, the diagnosis was deeply personal long before it became her own.
Years earlier, she watched her best friend die from glioblastoma, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer. Then, in November 2025, doctors discovered a tumor the size of a lime inside her own brain.
“When they told me I had a glioblastoma, I absolutely just flipped my lid because I thought, ‘I’m going to be dead in three months,'” Cooper said.
Today, Cooper is undergoing treatment and participating in a clinical trial. But like many families across the Treasure Coast, she is left with a question that has lingered for decades: Why does this keep happening?
A question that never fully went away
Concerns about glioblastoma cases in St. Lucie County have surfaced repeatedly over the years.
CBS12 News first reported on families raising questions about multiple diagnoses in the same communities years ago. Residents wondered whether the cases were connected and whether something in the environment could be playing a role.
One of those families was Adela Rivas’, whose son Kyle Vericella was diagnosed with glioblastoma.
“How many people have to get this and possibly lose their life for somebody to do something about it?” Rivas asked during a 2019 interview with CBS12 News.
FILE: Then 18, Kyle Vericella was diagnosed with glioblastoma in Fort Pierce in 2019. (WPEC)
As CBS12 News revisited those stories in 2026, a difficult reality emerged: some of the patients and families featured in those reports are no longer here.
Among them was Mark Cunningham, one of the patients CBS12 News previously profiled as families searched for answers.
“He passed on November 14 of 2019 at the age of 35,” Stephanie Ankiel-West said.
We first met Ankiel-West while she was fighting alongside her husband after his glioblastoma diagnosis. After his death, she continued advocating for families facing the same disease.
Today, Ankiel-West leads the Brain Cancer Foundation of the Treasure Coast and says she’s hearing from more families than ever before.
Advocates say new cases are emerging
According to Ankiel-West, the organization currently serves 12 adult patients and three pediatric patients and is aware of three additional cases identified by a local physician.
Those figures are not part of an official government registry and have not been independently verified by state health officials.
Still, Ankiel-West says the calls keep coming.
Laura Cooper (center) of Port St. Lucie is undergoing treatment and participating in a clinical trial. At right is Stephanie Ankiel-West, whose husband Mark Cunningham died on November 14, 2019, at the age of 35 (WPEC)
“We have a 3-year-old. Her name is Elizabeth. We have a 6-year-old named Gabe. We have an 8-year-old named Anthony,” she said. “I mean, I can keep going on and on.”
She says many of those families have ties to the same general areas of Fort Pierce, Indian River Estates and Port St. Lucie, including neighborhoods that have been discussed for years in connection with glioblastoma concerns.
Asked whether she believes the diagnoses are simply a coincidence, Ankiel-West didn’t hesitate.
“Oh, this is definitely not a coincidence,” she said.
What the state found
State health officials reached a different conclusion.
In 2019, the Florida Department of Health released the results of a review examining glioblastoma diagnoses in St. Lucie County between 1998 and 2017.
The review focused on ZIP codes 34952, 34982 and 34983.
The agency found no statistically significant increase in cases and did not designate the area a cancer cluster.
A cancer cluster is defined as a greater-than-expected number of cases of a particular disease occurring within a specific geographic area over a period of time.
For many advocates, however, the issue was never the designation itself.
MRI images showing an abnormal brain lesion concerning for glioblastoma.
It was the unanswered question that remained after the review was complete.
Because the state did not identify a cancer cluster, the broader environmental investigation many residents had hoped for never followed.
Searching for answers
Over the years, residents have raised questions about everything from drinking water and soil to industrial sites and other potential environmental exposures.
No government agency has determined the cases are connected and no specific environmental cause has been identified.
For families living with the disease, that uncertainty can be difficult to accept.
“That’s pretty terrifying, not knowing. Is my granddaughter going to get it?” Cooper said.
She admits she has spent countless hours wondering about what may have caused her cancer.
“I do a lot of gardening, so I’ve had my hands in the soil. Who knows? It could have come from the soil,” Cooper said. “Your mind just goes crazy.”
The uncertainty has also brought unexpected emotions.
“I have a little bit of survivor’s guilt going on,” she said. “I cry a lot about my friend. Why didn’t she have the time that I have?”
Calls for another look
Ankiel-West says she hopes health officials will revisit the issue.
“What I hope happens is that it actually is investigated again,” she said.
The Florida Department of Health did not immediately respond to CBS12 News questions asking whether updated glioblastoma data has been reviewed since its 2019 findings, what would be required to trigger another review, and whether any broader environmental investigation has been considered since then.
Until then, Ankiel-West says families will continue asking the same question they have been asking for years.
“How many people do we have to lose? How many does it take?” she said. “That’s what I want to know. How many people does it take before we finally say this is enough?”