Cancer cluster assessment in Port Clinton

One survivor is leading the charge for an investigation

The Ohio department of health is beginning a cancer assessment in Ottawa County. It's all thanks to a cancer survivor who believes there's a possible cluster in Port Clinton.

The woman leading the charge moved away from Port Clinton after high school graduation. She is a thryoid cancer survivor.

Maria Claus Konoff, 42, lives in Ottawa Hills with her dogs, her husband, and their three kids. She grew up in Port Clinton. She says, "My grandma lived on the lake and we loved it."

But did it make her, many of her neighbors and friends sick? "I think that we definitely have a cancer cluster in the area or a concern that needs to be looked at. There's far too many people with cancer, not just thyroid cancer."

Maria was diagnosed with thyroid cancer 15 years ago. She says she had "no idea what it was, how I got it. They say it's hereditary. I have nobody in my family with thyroid cancer."

Two years later, another Port Clinton friend also got thyroid cancer.

But it wasn't until five months ago, when Maria feared her own cancer was back, she asked a question on Facebook: Did anyone else that went to school with her in Port Clinton ever have thyroid cancer? Maria told us, "There were five definites, including me."

She contacted the Ohio department of health. She says, "I was inspired by the Clyde cancer cluster that I became aware of around April of last year."

The chief of comprehensive cancer control in Columbus Robert Indian says he is at the very beginning of a cancer assessment in Ottawa County, not yet a cluster investigation. "We'll review the available data, place them in or outside the study population, and then see what that tells us and then go from there."

Indian says from 2001 to 2005 there were four cases a year of newly diagnosed thyroid cancer in Ottawa County.

The incidence rate for thyroid cancer per 100,000 people in Ottawa County is 8.7. That's above the Ohio rate of 7.6, but below the national rate of 9.1.

Indian told us, "So the question becomes 'How many of those are Port Clinton residents?' We're going to take a look at those."

Meanwhile, Maria wants to help by raising awareness. She said, "It's a way for me to channel my anger in a positive way. It's a way for me to fight cancer, if you can say there's a way to fight cancer."

Indian says he should know by the end of the year whether his office will move forward with a full investigation in Port Clinton. He'll follow the numbers, for now, and determine if they are statistically significant.

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