![\"Lilly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/img-9484.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n On January 10, 2026, Lilly Dalton wrote her last Instagram post.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m making this post, but today I entered hospice care.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The 23-year-old from California who spent her childhood as an overachiever, graduating valedictorian and going on to earn a degree in history, was supposed to be beginning her career.\n <\/p>\n
\n Instead, she had endured aggressive cancer treatment for a year and a half, and now, her liver was failing.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cDoctors aren\u2019t sure how much longer I have left but I\u2019m finding the little joys in every single one of my days,\u201d she wrote under a picture of herself smiling, brown locks gone, in front of the Hollywood sign.\n <\/p>\n
\n Lilly had gone to the emergency room with stomach pain just three days after graduating from university in 2024. She was initially sent home with a gastritis diagnosis but returned the next day, and after some scans, doctors found a tumor on her liver, her father said.\n <\/p>\n
\n It would be at least three months before she would be given a more complete, earth-shattering diagnosis: Desmoplastic small round cell tumor that shares a genetic feature with Ewing sarcoma.\n <\/p>\n
\n The family was told it was an extremely rare cancer.\n <\/p>\n
\n Lilly did multiple rounds of what her father, Brian Dalton, described as \u201cRed Devil chemo,\u201d known for its red color and intense side effects, along with two types of radiation and major surgery.\n <\/p>\n
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\n Despite it all, she always had a smile on her face. \u201cAll the nurses loved her there. She was like a celebrity,\u201d Brian said. \u201cShe was always the best dressed. Her pajamas game was the best.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cMy biggest regret is that I always thought she was going to make it,\u201d the father said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Lilly died on January 25, leaving her father to grieve her loss while shouldering a mission to spread awareness about the cancer that took his daughter\u2019s life.\n <\/p>\n
\n So, months later, when Brian heard that multiple children had been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma in Ladera Ranch, a neighboring Orange County community where he says Lilly spent much of her childhood and teen years in, it set off alarm bells.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no way that this is a coincidence,\u201d Brian thought.\n <\/p>\n
\n Ewing sarcoma is so rare that only about 200 children and teens are diagnosed with it in the United States each year, accounting for 1% of all childhood cancers, according to the American Cancer Society.<\/a> It typically starts in the bones or surrounding soft tissue, most commonly among adolescents and young adults.\n <\/p>\n \n Though little is known about the cancer, it was becoming more familiar in Ladera Ranch this spring, and anxiety has been building for months.\n <\/p>\n \n Families in the suburb had been comparing notes and counting Ewing sarcoma cases connected to their community through Facebook groups and word of mouth. Residents tallied seven cases between 2007 and 2024, including at least one per year starting in 2021, according to resident group Ladera Health Watch. CNN could not independently verify those numbers due to privacy laws.\n <\/p>\n \n A troubling question began to take hold in Ladera Ranch: How could so many children connected to the same place develop such a rare cancer?\n <\/p>\n \n Ladera Ranch prides itself as an ideal place to raise a family. It was built around a particular vision of childhood: soccer games after school, bicycles left on sidewalks and long afternoons spent in neighborhood parks.\n <\/p>\n \n Playing fields and gathering spaces thread through the tidy neighborhoods of the master-planned community, home to around 26,000 people, with pristine roads winding through tree-lined cul-de-sacs.\n <\/p>\n \n The same spaces have become the focus of residents\u2019 questions.\n <\/p>\n \n Those questions nag at Dustin Matteson, whose 16-year-old son, Brody, was the kind of teenager who seemed to live on playing fields in Ladera Ranch. He spent his childhood cycling through football, rugby, baseball, basketball and soccer, piling up season after season of youth sports.\n <\/p>\n \n On the football field, Brody was known as a tough kid. His father, a towering former football player himself, said he discovered just how tough his son was during a brutal 19-month battle with Ewing sarcoma.\n <\/p>\n \n Even as cancer spread through his body, Brody kept making plans for the future, worried more about others than himself. \u201cHe said, \u2018I\u2019m happy it was me and not my brother and sister,\u2019\u201d Dustin recalled, covering his face.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI always say that football doesn\u2019t build character. It reveals it,\u201d he said. \u201cBrody\u2019s fight with cancer, I really feel the same way. It showed the underlying person that he was.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Brody died in March at 17. For some residents, his death marked the moment the community\u2019s grief turned into a demand for answers.\n <\/p>\n \n Though his family had moved to another state, Brian Dalton flew back in July to join the Mattesons and other parents of children with the rare cancer to call for answers at a Ladera Ranch town hall meeting<\/a> attended by government representatives, public health authorities and homeowners\u2019 associations.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI don\u2019t want another father standing where I stand today,\u201d Brian told the room. \u201cPlease don\u2019t let Lilly\u2019s story end with her. Let it become the reason we demanded answers.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n As anxiety punctured the tranquility of the suburb, questions bubbled up on everything from the community\u2019s water and pesticide use to abandoned oil wells underneath.\n <\/p>\n \n Soon, the questions expanded beyond town halls and Facebook groups, prompting a response from public health agencies, environmental regulators and elected officials.\n <\/p>\n \n In July, First Assistant US Attorney Bilal Essayli asked the Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> to determine whether environmental factors could be contributing to the \u201cunusual cluster of pediatric cancers\u201d in Ladera Ranch and whether any laws had been violated.\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s not known whether any environmental factors can cause Ewing sarcoma and determining that will take years of sustained research, experts say.\n <\/p>\n \n The California Department of Public Health\u2019s cancer registry is now trying to answer a first question: Is there really an unusual number of cancer cases in Ladera Ranch?\n <\/p>\n \n Results of the state\u2019s review are expected this fall but the agency cautions that even if it does find the pattern unusual, that review alone cannot determine whether there was an environmental cause for the cancers. For now, the state said<\/a> it has not identified any \u201cimmediate environmental hazards\u201d in the area.\n <\/p>\n \n California\u2019s current review of Ladera Ranch follows a 2024 assessment that found no unusual cancer pattern at the county level, though state officials said the available data was limited and did not focus specifically on Ladera Ranch.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s fair for the residents to be concerned that the place that they\u2019re having their kids roll around on and play sports on, and spend most of their life living on, needs to be safe and healthy,\u201d said Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley, who urged state health officials to expedite their review.\n <\/p>\n Pesticides and herbicides come under scrutiny<\/p>\n \n In one of Ladera\u2019s parks this month Brody\u2019s father watched as volunteer researchers fanned out across the grass with shovels and latex gloves. They were collecting soil and water samples into carefully labeled sterile plastic cups, searching for anything unusual lurking there.\n <\/p>\n \n Dustin said he hopes the efforts lead to answers.\n <\/p>\n \n But even before conclusions can be drawn, Ladera Ranch residents say they had pressured local institutions to begin taking precautionary steps. The community homeowners\u2019 association and the Capistrano Unified School District both paused the use of certain pesticides and herbicides at high-use areas while reviews were underway.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIf there is even a possibility that environmental exposures, including pesticides or any other factor, could be contributing, then those possibilities deserve a thorough, transparent, independent investigation,\u201d Brian said.\n <\/p>\n \n The community is part of a national shift toward skepticism of chemicals, pesticides and other environmental exposures. Part of that approach includes not waiting for proof before reducing potential harmful exposures.\n <\/p>\n \n The California Department of Public Health makes explicit<\/a> it is not yet known whether pesticides or other chemicals created an exposure risk in Ladera Ranch.\n <\/p>\n \n But because pesticide was a top concern raised by residents, the state officials said their assessment is looking specifically at cancer types linked to pesticide exposure \u201cand asks whether those cancers occur more often in Ladera Ranch than expected.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The search for answers converged with another local fight already underway.\n <\/p>\n \n Months before the cancer diagnoses became a public issue, Creek Team OC, a small grassroots organization, was already campaigning against herbicide spraying in local waterways, arguing chemicals were harming creek ecosystems. After public outcry, Orange County paused herbicide spraying<\/a> in flood channels countywide while officials evaluate the safest procedures for removing vegetation.\n <\/p>\n \n On a sunny August afternoon, the group\u2019s founder, Brent Linas, stood in front of the San Juan Creek, 5 miles from Ladera Ranch, pointing out the lack of plants near the channel.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThere was so much herbicide coming down from this poison creek that nothing could ever grow in here, and no one ever really questioned it,\u201d Linas said. CNN could not independently verify the claims.\n <\/p>\n \n It wasn\u2019t until he started calling out local leaders by name on his Instagram account and aggressively demanding answers that real progress was made, Linas said.\n <\/p>\n \n When Megan Matteson, whose son Brody had recently died, attended one of the Creek Team\u2019s meetings looking for answers, she brought her notebook of painstaking research on who had what kind of cancer in her community. The group was eager to help.\n <\/p>\n \n Pesticides became one of several possible explanations the community felt was worth investigating \u2013 and one that quickly gained traction in Ladera Ranch conversations, social media posts, and local meetings.\n <\/p>\n \n The community\u2019s homeowner\u2019s association, the Ladera Ranch Maintenance Corporation, told CNN in a statement it became aware of increased resident concern in May and paused certain synthetic landscape maintenance products. At a September 9 meeting, the board approved further reducing synthetic pesticide use across their landscapes and expanded the areas maintained without routine synthetic pesticides.\n <\/p>\n \n Before scientists can determine whether pesticides, drinking water or any other environmental factor may have played a role, experts say they first have to answer a more basic question: Is there actually an unusual number of cancer cases compared to Ladera Ranch\u2019s population size?\n <\/p>\n \n The California Department of Public Health told CNN \u201cfewer than 11 cases\u201d of Ewing sarcoma were identified in Ladera Ranch between 1999 and 2023 but said it could not release a more specific count because of confidentiality rules.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe problem is these cancers are so rare that a community that size really wouldn\u2019t expect to see a case every year, or every several years,\u201d said Joseph Leo Wiemels, director of the PhD Program in Epidemiology at the University of Southern California.\n <\/p>\n \n Seven or eight cases of Ewings in a 10-year, or slightly longer period, may sound like a small number, but \u201cit\u2019s more than you would expect based on the community of that size,\u201d he added.\n <\/p>\n \n Wiemels is hoping to work on an additional analysis across the whole state to ultimately help assess whether there is anything unusual happening in Ladera Ranch.\n <\/p>\n \n But even if researchers determine that cancer rates are unusually high, Wiemels cautions there may never be a definitive explanation.\n <\/p>\n \n Residents have been contacting him for months hoping for answers, he said, but proving a particular environmental exposure caused a rare cancer can be extraordinarily difficult.\n <\/p>\n \n Wiemels is also skeptical about hastily drawing connections to pesticides.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t put the blame on pesticides just because it hasn\u2019t shown up as a strong risk factor in other studies on Ewings sarcoma\u201d he said. \u201cIf it was a strong risk factor, we would probably see it in other communities that have similar\u2026 kind of residential use pesticides.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Evidence connecting environmental chemicals of any kind to Ewing sarcoma is \u201cvery thin,\u201d Wiemels said. Coincidence also remains a possible explanation for an apparent cluster. \u201cIt is important to understand that even if pesticide exposure doubled or tripled the incidence of Ewing sarcoma, that is not likely to result in a cluster.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The epidemiologist pointed to a study of a cluster of childhood leukemia cases in Fallon, Nevada<\/a>, which suggested a possible infectious link but found no definitive cause for what was behind the unusual pattern \u2013 despite millions of dollars investigating the event.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIn general, for cancer, my automatic thought is: \u2018What\u2019s in the air that they\u2019re breathing, what\u2019s in the water that they\u2019re drinking, and what\u2019s in the food that they\u2019re eating?\u2019\u201d said Megan Latshaw, professor in Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWho lives within a certain mile radius of where the wind blows from air toxic emissions? What\u2019s in the toys our kids are playing with, what\u2019s in the building materials in our houses?\u201d she continued. The questions can become maddening, she admits.\n <\/p>\n \n But cancer rarely has a single cause. Exposure to a carcinogen can act as a \u201c1-2 punch\u201d for someone who already carries a genetic vulnerability, Latshaw said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cCancer takes time,\u201d she said. \u201cA single DNA mutation \u2026 you might not even notice that there\u2019s anything going on for years.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n That complexity makes it difficult to isolate any one factor.\n <\/p>\n \n While the gene changes that lead to Ewing tumors are known, it\u2019s still not clear what causes these changes.\n <\/p>\n \n Unlike with many cancers among adults, which are linked to risk factors like obesity or smoking, there aren\u2019t many known risk factors for most childhood cancers in general.\n <\/p>\n \n Still, uncertainty does not necessarily mean inaction. Latshaw said public health officials often rely on the precautionary principle, reducing potential exposures when feasible even before definitive evidence of harm exists.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt can\u2019t hurt, right?\u201d she said. \u201cPesticides are toxic. That is why they are invented \u2013 to break down some sort of cellular function in a living organism. So, reducing our use of pesticides can be a really good thing, whether or not it was causing an unusual pattern of cancer.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n As the community\u2019s questions expanded, a group began pushing for records on anything that may potentially be a cause of cancer in their community, according to Jackie French, one of the organizers of Ladera Health Watch<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n They started digging into questions about pesticides and landscaping practices and raised concerns about an abandoned oil well<\/a> beneath a sidewalk they worried may not have been properly resealed.\n <\/p>\n \n The group sent a letter to state officials to evaluate the well\u2019s integrity, and the California Geologic Energy Management Division performed an inspection on August 31, finding no leaks or emissions, a state conservation department spokesperson told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n Residents\u2019 questions about the suburb\u2019s water quality also drew a response from the local utility.\n <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/260918-gw-national-laderaranch-09182026-gw-01445.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Dustin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/260918-gw-national-laderaranch-09182026-gw-01891-20260919130652407.jpg\")
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