MARINE CITY, Mich., May 4 (UPI) -- Michigan health officials are investigating a suspected cluster of rare kidney cancers, with pollution a possible cause.
Wilms' tumor usually strikes 500 Americans yearly, often children. Five cases have turned up in Marine City, population 5,000, over the last four years. The latest victim is a 6-month-old girl diagnosed in March.
That case led the St. Clair County Public Health Department reopen its investigation, The Detroit News reported Wednesday.
Marine City has factories and lies downstream from the Chemical Valley in Sarnia, Ontario, with its petrochemical plants. But there is no proof of an environmental link, health officials say.
Wilms' tumor is thought to develop from immature kidney cells and the survival rate for children is 92 percent, the National Cancer Institute reports.
Jeffrey Taub, a pediatric oncologist at Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, called the incidence "unusual."
"It's really important that people do not panic and draw premature conclusions that this is linked to something in the environment," said Sue Amato, the county's director of health education.
