![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791377053_626_1c23c017-78eb-42ed-b781-fc35c42f96eb-WPECPHOTOFORWEB.png\")
<\/p>\nST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Matt Elliott wants to know whether his brain cancer could be connected to other diagnoses on the Treasure Coast. He also knows he may not live long enough to get an answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt might take them years to even figure out what the hell\u2019s going on around here,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cI can\u2019t expect myself to be around at the end of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Matt Elliott was diagnosed this year with glioblastoma, an aggressive, fast-growing grade 4 brain cancer. The former bar manager described struggling to speak after surgery and initially believing his diagnosis was an isolated case. Meeting other local patients changed that. (WPEC)<\/p>\n
Families in St. Lucie County have raised similar questions for years, pointing to diagnoses just houses apart \u2014 and, in some cases, among unrelated residents of the same home decades apart.<\/p>\n
In June, I-Team reporter Katie Bente<\/a> revisited families\u2019 search for answers. In this second part of her investigation, Bente went street by street with a widow tracking the diagnoses and pressing health officials for updated findings.<\/p>\n A few houses apart<\/p>\n For Stephanie Ankiel<\/a>, one stop on the drive through Fort Pierce brings the questions back to her own family. She pointed to her late husband\u2019s childhood home, then another home a few houses away where she said a resident was diagnosed in 2025 with the same type of brain tumor.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the house my late husband grew up in,\u201d Ankiel said. \u201cHe was diagnosed with the same exact thing as that gentleman in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n For Stephanie Ankiel, one stop on the drive through Fort Pierce brings the questions back to her own family. She pointed to her late husband\u2019s childhood home, then another home a few houses away where she said a resident was diagnosed in 2025 with the same type of brain tumor. (WPEC)<\/p>\n Both men were initially diagnosed with oligodendroglioma, a different type of brain tumor from glioblastoma<\/a>. Ankiel said her husband Mark Cunningham\u2019s cancer <\/a>later progressed to glioblastoma. He died in 2019 at 35.<\/p>\n A few streets away, she identified another home where she said two unrelated residents developed glioblastoma decades apart.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the house where we\u2019ve had two glioblastoma cases, 20 years apart, no family relation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Elsewhere along the route, Ankiel pointed to neighboring homes where she said a woman and an 18-year-old had been diagnosed with brain cancer. The I-Team is withholding exact addresses to protect families\u2019 privacy.<\/p>\n PART 1: Brain cancer diagnoses leave St. Lucie County families searching for answers, again<\/a><\/p>\n Ankiel helps patients through the Brain Cancer Foundation of the Treasure Coast<\/a>, including a child who is just 3. She has spent years mapping where patients lived and looking for possible connections.<\/p>\n Three additional brain cancer cases were confirmed in August alone in the areas families are tracking. Those diagnoses and the proximity of patients\u2019 homes do not establish a cancer cluster or a common cause. But Ankiel wants officials to examine the range of brain cancers represented on her map, beyond glioblastoma alone.<\/p>\n \u201cRegardless if it\u2019s Glio at this point, we have too much brain cancer in this area. Period,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n CDC guidance allows consideration of different cancer types when evidence suggests shared causes or exposures. No such connection has been established among the cases families are tracking.<\/p>\n What the state studied \u2014 and what is new<\/p>\n The Florida Department of Health\u2019s 2019 review examined glioblastoma diagnoses from 1998 through 2017 in ZIP codes 34952, 34982 and 34983. It found no statistically significant increase and did not designate a cancer cluster.<\/p>\n That review did not include later diagnoses and focused on glioblastoma rather than the range of brain tumors represented on Ankiel\u2019s map. Her husband\u2019s initial diagnosis is one reason she wants officials to examine that broader picture.<\/p>\n The Florida Department of Health\u2019s 2019 review examined glioblastoma diagnoses from 1998 through 2017 in ZIP codes 34952, 34982 and 34983. It found no statistically significant increase and did not designate a cancer cluster. (WPEC)<\/p>\n The I-Team asked whether the department had analyzed cases diagnosed since 2017 and what would trigger new environmental testing. St. Lucie County Health Officer Clint Sperber said officials have been reviewing cancer registry data and environmental influences.<\/p>\n \u201cOur latest analysis, which includes data through 2023, shows no indication of higher rates in St. Lucie County or in the specific zip codes people have asked about,\u201d Sperber wrote. \u201cSt. Lucie\u2019s rates are in line with nearby counties and with the state as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n The updated report was not available when he responded. Sperber said officials were finishing a summary to release online.<\/p>\n His response did not explain how the analysis handled tumors initially classified as another type and later diagnosed as glioblastoma, or whether other brain cancers were examined separately. It also did not specify what would trigger additional environmental testing.<\/p>\n No environmental factor questioned by families has been established as a cause of these cancers.<\/p>\n A call for another look<\/p>\n![\"{p}For](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791377054_334_18315c4e-86ba-4427-9ba3-6cd70ae6302a-WPECPHOTOFORWEB2.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791377055_232_988d103d-d9d1-4f87-a7c1-aa4602bf8e0d-Screenshot20261001151155.png\")
<\/p>\n