985 - How to Investigate a Cancer Cluster
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 10 December 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
About this episode:
In 1979, the town of Woburn, MA, raised the alarm as unusual numbers of children fell ill with leukemia. An investigation determined that this cancer cluster was likely caused by contaminated drinking water from two of the town's wells. In this episode: Suzanne Condon, who served as the associate commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Health at the time, and Megan Latshaw, an expert in disease clusters, explain what the Woburn investigation highlights about unusual patterns of cancer and how they are studied.
Guests:
Suzanne Condon, MSM, is an environmental health expert who served as the associate commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Health from 1980 to 2015.
Megan Latshaw, PhD, MHS, is a professor in Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also the co-instructor of an online course on disease clusters.
Host:
Dr. Josh Sharfstein is distinguished professor of the practice in Health Policy and Management, a pediatrician, and former secretary of Maryland's Health Department.
Show links and related content:
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How The Post found growing rates of cancer in America's Corn Belt—Washington Post
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Disease Clusters—Coursera
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LEUKEMIA STRIKES A SMALL TOWN—New York Times
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Childhood Leukemia in Woburn, Massachusetts—Public Health Reports
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, |
| 0:05.9 | where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges. |
| 0:16.3 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jhhhu.edu. |
| 0:23.8 | That's public health question at jhhu.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:31.1 | Hey listeners, it's Lindsay Smith-Rogers. Today, cancer clusters. What are they and how are they investigated? Susan Condon served as |
| 0:39.7 | Associate Commissioner and Director of Environmental Health at the Massachusetts Department of Health. |
| 0:44.4 | She and Dr. Megan Latchaw of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health joined Dr. Josh |
| 0:49.1 | Sharstein at a time when cancer rates are rising among young people and questions are growing |
| 0:53.9 | about what might be |
| 0:55.0 | responsible. A note for our listeners, Dr. Latshaw is the instructor of an online course on disease |
| 1:00.9 | clusters that is linked in our show notes. Let's listen. Suzanne Condon, Megan Latchell, thank you so |
| 1:07.5 | much for joining me today in Public Health On Call to talk about cancer clusters. |
| 1:11.5 | And I'd like to start with you, Dr. Lachal. |
| 1:14.0 | Could you just define a cancer cluster for me? |
| 1:18.7 | Absolutely. |
| 1:19.5 | So the traditional definition of a cancer cluster is when you have a greater number of the same type of cancer than you would have expected in a certain place |
| 1:30.8 | over a certain period of time. I will just throw in there that now people are starting to |
| 1:36.6 | talk about unusual patterns of cancer instead of the term cancer cluster. What's an unusual |
| 1:43.1 | pattern of cancer? So an unusual pattern of cancer? |
| 1:45.0 | So an unusual pattern of cancer is instead of just saying it has to be a single type of cancer, |
| 1:51.8 | it's when you group different types of cancer that have similar causes. |
| 1:57.1 | In other words, if the same chemical causes multiple different types of cancer, you can include them in the calculation. |
... |
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