Cancer Cases Surge Among WTC Health Program Patients 25 Years After 9/11

Physicians and patients gathered at Northwell Health's Long Island Jewish Medical Center to mark the approaching 25th anniversary and warn of an accelerating health crisis among the roughly 145,000 people now enrolled in the WTC Health Program. At Northwell alone, annual cancer diagnoses grew from 177 in 2023 to 235 in 2025 — a 75% jump — with 132 new cases already recorded in the first half of 2026, part of 811 new cases logged over the past 42 months versus 1,634 across the entire first decade (2013–2022). Lung cancer cases have doubled in five years. Across the full WTC Health Program population, more than 57,000 cancer cases have now been documented. Dr. Jacqueline Moline, the program's director, said: 'There has been a twofold increase in lung cancer in just five years. Our fear is that cancer diagnoses will only rise as we move into the next 25 years.' The average WTC Health Program patient is now 63 years old; the most common cancers are prostate, skin, breast, and urinary tract.